A look into potential MLB award winners

The past six months have not ceased to amaze, as historic performances and surprising storylines have saturated the season from day one.

Let’s look at some of the most dominant and indispensable individuals in the League and predict the winners of the season’s major awards.

First up, the Manager of the Year awards.

In the American League, Paul Molitor of the Minnesota Twins has a slight edge over Joe Girardi of the New York Yankees and A. J. Hinch of the Houston Astros.

Girardi and Hinch’s efforts have certainly been commendable, as they led their respective teams back to the playoffs after disappointing 2016 seasons.

New York and Houston are very talented teams, so their strong performances did not exactly come out of nowhere.

On the other hand, the Twins were coming off an MLB-worst 59-103 season in 2016, finishing nine games worse than any other team in baseball.

With largely the same roster, Molitor and the Twins have managed a complete turnaround and are poised for a playoff run. Minnesota’s drastic improvement puts Molitor in prime position to capture the award.

In the National League, Torey Lovullo of the Arizona Diamondbacks leads the way.

In just his first season in Arizona, Lovullo has taken the team that was a major bust in 2016 and turned it into a legitimate World Series contender.

Lovullo, who leads the Diamondbacks to their first playoff berth since 2011, deserves immense credit for creating a winning culture in Arizona from his first day on the job.

For much of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers were winning at a historic pace. Manager Dave Roberts therefore appeared to be the presumptive winner of this year’s award. However, the Dodgers’ late-season slide has hurt Roberts’ chances of winning his second consecutive Manager of the Year award.

Roberts, as well as Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black, are certainly also in the running, but expect Lovullo to edge out his fellow NL West managers for the award.

Next up, the Rookie of the Year awards.

In a year in which numerous up-and-coming players took the League by storm, one could imagine the Rookie of the Year races to be wide-open. However, each league has one player that was head-and-shoulders above the rest of the sport’s young phenoms.

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers have all but locked up the American League (AL) and National League (NL) awards, respectively. These two sluggers have been mashing the ball at historic rates.

Judge has been the best power hitter in the AL this year. Despite a second-half slump, he still managed to break the MLB record for home runs by a rookie.

Meanwhile, Bellinger — who was not called up to the Majors until late April — has hit the most home runs by a rookie in NL history. Both Judge and Bellinger were extremely exciting players to watch all season and are poised to be stars in the league for years to come.

Now, let’s look at the battle for the Cy Young races, which appear neck-and-neck in both leagues.

The AL race will be decided between Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians and Chris Sale of the Boston Red Sox. For much of the season, Sale seemed to be the frontrunner, in large part to due his extraordinary strikeout totals.

However, Kluber has come on strong as of late, and it seems as though the Cy Young is Sale’s award to lose.

Kluber — who already won the award in 2014 — leads the AL in ERA by a considerable margin and has been an instrumental component of the Indians’ historic run over the latter part of the season. Sale — who has finished in the top six in Cy Young voting in each of his six years as a starter — seems destined to fall just short of winning the award yet again.

There is no denying that Sale had an incredible season, but it is looking more and more like Kluber will slightly edge him out in the voting.

Meanwhile, in the NL, the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw and Washington Nationals’ ace Max Scherzer are the top contenders.

Kershaw’s teammate, Kenley Jansen, also deserves recognition for his tremendous work as Los Angeles’ closer. However, Jansen’s role as a bullpen pitcher will hurt his chances of winning the award.

Baltimore Orioles closer Zach Britton dealt with the same issue in 2016, and his numbers were even more impressive than Jansen’s have been this year.

The Kershaw-Scherzer comparison parallels that of Kluber and Sale. Scherzer has a significant lead in the strikeout category, but Kershaw has a marginally lower ERA. One noticeable difference is that Kershaw missed the entire month of August due to a back injury, while Scherzer only missed a couple of games when he was dealing with a neck injury.

While Scherzer has more strikeouts and has pitched more games, I still believe that Kershaw will eke out a victory. While wins are largely arbitrary and are not necessarily correlated with a pitcher’s performance, Kershaw’s 18 wins in 26 starts to date are extremely impressive.

Scherzer also faces competition from his own teammates, who themselves have had incredible success this season. The strong performances by Scherzer’s teammates in Washington — Gio González and Stephen Strasburg — could dilute the ace’s voting pool.

This award could absolutely go either way, but I expect Kershaw’s ERA and wins to net the Dodgers’ ace his fourth Cy Young award.

Last, let’s examine the MVP races.

In the American League, expect José Altuve of the Houston Astros to be named MVP. Due to Aaron Judge’s considerable second half decline and Mike Trout’s significant time missed due to injury, Altuve has run away with this award.

The second baseman has been hitting at an elite level all season and leads all of baseball in batting average. Furthermore, he is the leader of an Astros team that cruised to an AL West title. Expect the well-deserving Altuve to win his first MVP award this season.

In the NL MVP race are Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins and Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds. Stanton and Votto have both been offensive juggernauts, but their respective teams’ futility will likely prevent them from capturing the award.

In Colorado, both Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon have put up spectacular numbers. However, they significantly benefited from playing half of their games at Coors Field.

The two Rockies stars will inevitably lose out because of sharp contrasts between their home and road statistics. They will also likely steal votes from each other because they play on the same team.

That leaves the Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman, Paul Goldschmidt, who appears to be in line to win his first MVP award. Goldschmidt may be the most under-discussed player in baseball.

He does not get the recognition that he deserves, despite being arguably the best first baseman in all of baseball over the past five years.

However, with Arizona heading to the playoffs for the first time since his rookie season, it looks like Goldschmidt — who leads the team in every major offensive category — is finally in line to claim the elusive award.

This season has been one to remember, from historic winning streaks to record-breaking performances to unforgettable moments. The aforementioned individuals each played a critical role in shaping the season’s narrative and will continue to do so come playoff time.