Category: Baseball

We’re only 22 days away from the Owners locking out the Players in the major labor dispute that has loomed over the sport for the last 18 months. Chaim Bloom, newly minted GM Rob Cerfolio, and the St. Louis Cardinals front office have a very limited window to operate to improve the big league roster heading into the 2027 season. There are areas of the roster that those in and out of the organization have identified as areas to address. Some want to see a significant addition to the starting rotation; others want the focus to be on the bullpen; 3rd base has been speculated on relentlessly; and those here at VEB made a convincing argument that center field is somewhere that the front office should NOT be complacent.

Nathan Church, who is the incumbent at the position, left a lot to be desired in his performance a season ago after Victor Scott II, once again, did not display tangible improvement offensively and subsequently lost his roster spot, as he now faces uncertainty about whether or not he will be tendered a contract this offseason. Of the 23 MLB CFs who had a minimum of 450 PAs, Nathan Church ranked 21st in fWAR, 19th in OBP (.290), 15th in SLG (.364), 19th in OPS (.654), 20th in ISO (.118), 18th in wRC+ (81), 19th in wOBA (.288), and 19th in xwOBA (.283). Coming into the season, Church was viewed as more of a 4th OF type by me and other 3rd party evaluators, and those numbers suggest that those evaluations were correct. Church can be a serviceable late-game defensive replacement or a short-term fill-in, but he should not be relied upon to start in extended stretches of the season.

Steven Kwan is a name that has a ton of intrigue to me if the Cardinals want to make a short-term investment: a 4-time Gold Glove winner and a consistent 3-5 win player per season. That kind of improvement in value could potentially push the position player group to a strong wild-card contender. Before anyone decides to participate in fake outrage, no, that’s not the annual goal of an established franchise with a history of winning, like the St. Louis Cardinals. But after 4 consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs in an era where it’s never been easier to achieve a playoff berth, that would represent a welcome step forward. The Guardians are a notoriously challenging front office to make deals with; however, their baseball ops people have a model they follow relentlessly and can present challenges lining up on the value of a return. If Chaim Bloom and Co. decide that the price for Kwan is too rich, they can pivot to the free agent market where today’s topic target exists.

A common theme among Cardinals fans is that because of the success of the “Dustin May experiment,” the front office should replicate that with another starting pitcher this offseason. Fellow writer Scott Plaza has advocated ad nauseam for Kris Bubic, and while I don’t hate the idea, I even advocated for him in the piece that I pulled back at the last second last month before changing course and advocating for more opportunities from internal pieces in the rotation. But let’s not close ourselves off to the idea that the sign-and-flip process is exclusive to just the pitching staff.

Luis Robert Jr’s profile matches up with Dustin May in more ways than you might have initially thought. An under-30 player who has high upside measurables, has struggled with injuries, and is in need of a reset in an environment that can guarantee him starting opportunities and has had success with keeping players healthy. “Lou-Bob,” as those on the South Side called him, suffered through another injury-plagued season after being dealt to the New York Mets. Let’s be honest, pretty much every player brought in by the Mets last offseason underperformed, so I’m willing to overlook what was mostly a lost season for him in an organization that proved it wasn’t able to get the most out of its players.

Robert Jr. did, however, display a career-high average bat speed of 77.3 MPH, which would narrowly rank him 3rd on the Cardinals behind Jordan Walker (79.3 MPH) and Joshua Baez (77.5 MPH). Why is bat speed important? For one, it increases exit velocities and is a widely recognized indicator of power potential. Faster bat speed also allows hitters to wait back longer and provides greater adjustability when trying to recognize spin. Because of those two elements, it also allows players the ability to find success even if they don’t catch the barrel flush on the ball.

Sprint speed is another top-notch element of Robert Jr’s game that he can use on both sides of the ball to impact a game. He registered 28.9 ft/s sprint speeds in 2026, and that would have rated as the 4th fastest on the team behind Jordan Walker, Joshua Baez, and Victor Scott II. The power/speed combo is one that can really raise the floor of a team’s upside, and Jordan Walker, Joshua Baez, and a potential addition of Luis Robert Jr. could give the Cardinals one of the highest-upside outfields in baseball.

Injuries are, of course, part of the discussion, but nothing that I think is indicative of immediate concern. A couple of right hip flexor issues, a sprained wrist, an MCL sprain, and a couple of hamstring strains are a part of his injury history. There is one injury, of note, that would grant some pause, that was a bulging lumbar spine disc herniation. The good news is that it is not a result of playing the game of baseball but is more commonly associated with poor form when lifting heavy weights; it was likely suffered during training, and he has since returned to play after the injury. St. Louis has its fair share of recent outfielders with injury questions, including Tyler O’Neill and Lars Nootbaar.

So, whats the cost? In this industry, money talks. Former VEB writer Ben Clemens over at Fangraphs projected him to receive a 1-year, $ 14 million contract, and their staff writer had this to say about Robert Jr:

As you read this, approximately 25 hitting coaches are watching video of Robert hit and thinking, “I can fix him.” A handful of those coaches might be right, but the decision-makers in front offices shouldn’t count on it, as doing so would require Robert staying healthy long enough for a potential fix to take hold and he has yet to make it through a 162-game season without missing significant time. His only season without an IL stint was 2020, which famously was much shorter than a typical season.

After impressing at the plate over his first several seasons, Robert hasn’t posted an above-average wRC+ since 2023. Injuries likely played a role in that, but despite diminished overall production, he has demonstrated growth at the plate over the last couple of years. He’s become more patient at the plate, swinging and, more importantly, whiffing less. As a result, his walks are up and his strikeouts are down. His bat speed increased by nearly two ticks last season and perhaps relatedly, his power numbers crept up as well; even though he only logged 230 plate appearances, he clubbed 11 home runs.

When healthy, Robert should still offer solid outfield defense. His arm has lost a little juice, but his sprint speed remains elite. Still, given his slew of soft tissue injuries, it may be prudent to pencil him in at DH once or twice a week.

IF the Cardinals can manage to keep him healthy, this is a guy with 30-30 upside. Luis Robert Jr. could provide more upside, more potential, more potential ROI (if they manage to find themselves out of it at the deadline) OR one of their young CF options like Tai Peete or Josiah Ragsdale proves ready to take the everyday job. Chaim Bloom has preached “urgency and conceding nothing” along with his vision for the franchise’s long-term approach. Cardinals fans are excited about the direction of the team when it comes to the long-term core pieces being developed. But they are also simultaneously getting antsy when it comes to results on the field and in the standings, and as previously stated, it’s now been 4 consecutive seasons without a postseason appearance, which is now the longest such stretch during the 21st century. Though this offseason brings a short window for activity, inactivity will not be met with a pleasant response from fans, not only in online discourse, but the DeWitt family can expect a depression in ticket sales to reflect that as well, and Cardinals fans seem intent on matching the investment made by ownership and front office alike.

-thanks for reading

Bold Predictions

Paul Dietrich: The Brewers have a pair of 30/30 players

Well, I took this assignment pretty seriously. I predicted before the season that Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang would each finish with 30 homers and 30 stolen bases. Chourio did go 20/20 for the third time in his three seasons, but his early-season injury prevented him from reaching the 30/30 mark; with 25 homers and 23 stolen bases in 127 games, he very well may have made it if he’d made his season debut before May 4. Turang, though, didn’t get particularly close. While he had an excellent season (more on that below), he hit 21 homers and stole 19 bases, not even close to the 30/30 threshold.

Harrison Freuck: Jacob Misiorowski reaches the 200-strikeout threshold

This doesn’t really seem all that bold in retrospect. In my defense, though, Miz entered the season with just 66 major league innings under his belt, and he was coming off a career-high 129 1/3 innings, which would mean he’d need an incredible 13.9 K/9 to reach 200. Well, he didn’t quite get that K/9 rate, but he did throw 174 2/3 innings, and with 13 K/9 over that stretch, he ended up leading the majors with 252 strikeouts. Not too bad for a 24-year-old who entered the season with command issues.

Jackson Heiden:Jake Bauers is the true team MVP

Well, I kinda cheated, considering I didn’t join the writing staff until May, so I’ll be going off who I felt was the midseason MVP for the Brewers. All I can say is boy, did that age well. Bauers will never have to pay for a drink in the state of Wisconsin after his performance in the postseason. He drew 10 walks, collected nine hits, and had arguably the biggest home run of the postseason to give the Brewers a lead over the Dodgers. Outside of that, he turned in career highs in every statistical category, proving to be one of the best and consistent players all season long.

Jason Paczkowski: Brice Turang finishes in the top five for NL MVP

Definitely got this one right. Even before the MVP vote is revealed on Thursday, we already know that Turang is in the top three for NL MVP. While he’s unlikely to win it over Pete Crow-Armstrong, he has a chance at finishing second over Shohei Ohtani (which none of us would have thought possible at the start of the season). He finished third among position players in the NL with 5.9 fWAR and 7.3 bWAR.

Adam Zimmer: Jacob Misiorowski is a top-five NL Cy Young finisher

Nailed this one. I’ve been super high on Misiorowski since he was a minor leaguer, but even I didn’t expect his first full season in the big leagues to be one of the most dominant seasons ever, putting his name in conversations with legends like Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. My bold prediction may not have even been bold enough; Miz hasn’t officially been named the National League Cy Young winner yet, but he’s the odds-on favorite.

Storylines to Watch

Paul Dietrich: Who is the first blue-chip prospect to break through?

In my blurb before the season, I wondered if, by Opening Day in 2027, Jesús Made, Cooper Pratt, and Jett Williams would be in the lineup. Made is still a teenager until a month into the (hypothetical) 2027 season, and Williams had an injury-plagued, disappointing season that threatened his status as a real prospect. I wasn’t wrong about Pratt, though: he was in the Brewer lineup by mid-June, performing better than anyone expected, and he went up a level in the playoffs, where he very easily could’ve been the World Series MVP.

The other prospect who made it to the bigs this year was not someone anyone really expected before the season. Luis Lara wasn’t a non-prospect by any means, but it was his incredibly hot start with the bat at Triple-A Nashville that earned him a long-term extension and a call-up to the big leagues in early July. Lara ultimately made less of an impact than Pratt, but he was a positive presence and if he can fine-tune his offensive game a bit, then he’ll have a major role in the future.

Harrison Freuck: Can Milwaukee’s 2025 breakout stars repeat in 2026?

When I wrote this storyline, I specifically referenced Brice Turang, Quinn Priester, Chad Patrick, and Andrew Vaughn.

The bad? Priester didn’t throw a single pitch as he ultimately underwent season-ending surgery in the summer. Patrick pitched to a similar stat line compared to his 2025 campaign, making 57 appearances (six starts) with a 9-4 record, 3.40 ERA, 4.17 FIP, and 93 strikeouts over 106 innings, but he made no playoff appearances before being left off the World Series roster as he struggled down the stretch.

The good? Turang improved on his 5.5 bWAR season to turn in a 7.3 bWAR season, and he’s now one of three MVP finalists. He came a stolen base away from a 20-20 season, with 21 homers, 100 RBIs, 102 runs scored, and a .268/.366/.450 line. He also took home a Gold Glove for the second time in his young career. Vaughn, who was a valuable bat for Milwaukee down the stretch last season, was relegated to a backup/platoon role thanks to Jake Bauers’ breakout (more on him later), but he was still solid even in limited opportunities — over 104 games, he hit .306/.390/.444 with six homers, 18 doubles, 43 RBIs, and 33 runs scored.

Jackson Heiden: Can Joey Ortiz turn into a reliable every day third baseman?

As I mentioned above, I wasn’t here for this, so I’m going off of what I thought as a spectator. To be completely transparent, I was ready to move on from Joey Ortiz back in 2025, and for the first month of the season, that was still the case, until it wasn’t. It’s hard to imagine what the 2026 season would’ve looked like had the Brewers not gotten the second half from Ortiz that they did. During the first two months of the season, Ortiz batted .234, barely getting on base. In the second half of the season, he became a key piece, completely changing the dynamic of the left side of the infield, batting .323 over the final three months while continuing to play lockdown defense at the hot corner.

Jason Paczkowski: Can Andrew Vaughn maintain his 2025 performance?

While Andrew Vaughn did maintain his 2025 performance in 2026, it wasn’t a massive success. He ended up with about the same numbers over the course of the season. His OBP rose slightly from .375 with the Brewers in 2025 to .390 in 2026, but his slugging percentage dropped from .493 to .444. He ended up mostly as a bench bat after Jake Bauers had a dominant season and barely played in the playoffs. Vaughn could still be needed in 2027 depending on what Bauers does with the qualifying offer.

Adam Zimmer: Who’s going to play third base?

The Brewers entered the year with a Luis Rengifo-David Hamilton platoon at third base, which I (correctly) assumed wouldn’t be the plan all season. Although he got hot in October, Hamilton produced just 0.4 WAR over the regular season, and Rengifo was designated for assignment by June. Instead, the Brewers called up top prospect Cooper Pratt to play shortstop and moved Joey Ortiz back to third. Pratt hit .281 with a .718 OPS in his rookie season, while the move to third base seemingly revived Ortiz’s bat: he posted a .911 OPS and 25 RBIs after the All-Star break.

Team MVP

Paul Dietrich: Brice Turang

Amusingly, all five of us chose Turang as the team MVP before the season. And while I would listen to arguments about, certainly, Jacob Misiorowski, and maybe some would argue for Chourio or William Contreras, Turang was the correct answer. By Baseball Reference WAR, he was the team’s best player, and by FanGraphs’ version, he was the most valuable position player. Turang’s evolution from light-hitting defensive whiz to one of the best all-around players in the league has been a joy to watch, and it earned him not just team MVP honors but a top-three finish in the National League, making him the first Brewer to do so since Christian Yelich in 2019.

Harrison Freuck: Brice Turang

As I said above, Turang had another great season that culminated in a top-three MVP finish. While our community gave the edge in the MVBrewers rankings to William Contreras, I’d argue that’s primarily due to Contreras’ management of the pitching staff and his performance in the postseason. It may be overshadowed by some of the other performances, but Turang still batted .261/.404/.413 with a homer, four doubles, four RBIs, nine runs, two steals, and a team-high 11 walks in 13 postseason games. I’d say that’s a perfectly good line for a guy who put up 7.3 bWAR in the regular season, warranting him the team MVP distinction.

Jackson Heiden:Christian Yelich

Yeah, I know, maybe I’m living in 2018, but I have felt that for the Brewers to make a deep run, they would need their soon-to-be captain to be somewhat of himself of old. My thought process behind this pick was that everyone else would continue to produce at the level they have been, and that the missing link in Yelich would be the man that they needed. While his regular season was less than optimal, taking a step back from the season prior, his postseason performance was more what I was looking for. He collected 11 hits, a double, a triple, and drove in five, while walking six times.

Jason Paczkowski: Brice Turang

There’s not much more to say here. Turang was one of the best players in the National League by fWAR and bWAR, as mentioned before. His defense recovered and he won his second Gold Glove, and his bat has been just as strong. He hit 21 home runs and had his first 100-RBI season, and barely missed joining the 20-20 club with 19 steals. The only question remaining for Turang in 2026 is where he finished exactly among the top three for NL MVP.

Adam Zimmer: Brice Turang

I, like the rest of the staff, picked Turang, so I won’t spend too much time on this one. While you could make a case for Misiorowski, Turang followed up his second-half breakout in 2025 with the best all-around season of his career. He posted 7.3 bWAR to Misiorowski’s 6.4 and was named an NL MVP finalist alongside Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers.

Most Improved Player

Paul Dietrich: Jacob Misiorowski

I wondered if this was cheating when I made this prediction, as Miz had only thrown 66 regular-season innings and had looked like a star in the 2025 postseason. But I was right: his 2025 regular season was a roller coaster, and I was certainly right about his improvement in 2026, as he was undeniably the best pitcher in baseball.

Harrison Freuck: Jake Bauers

Bullseye. I used Bauers’ strong final month of the 2025 season paired with a solid spring training to predict he’d have a breakout regular season, and breakout he did. By now, we’ve all heard the storyline about how he was ready to retire before coming back to the Brewers, and he proved that was the right decision — after putting up a career-high 0.6 bWAR in 2025, he slugged his way to 3.3 bWAR in 2026, slashing .266/.389/.484 with a team-high 26 homers, 22 doubles, 86 RBIs, 93 runs, and 11 steals across 144 games, taking over what was initially intended to be a platoon with Vaughn at first base. Despite a rough World Series, he still turned in a fairly solid postseason, winning NLCS MVP with a pair of long at-bats (one culminating in a walk, the other a homer) against the Dodgers, and drawing 10 walks for a .345 OBP.

Jackson Heiden:Jacob Misiorowski

It feels almost cliché to pick the ace of the staff, but at the beginning of the season, we didn’t know if we were going to see the ace that we saw all season. In 2025, Miz had the stuff, but he didn’t throw it as effectively as he did in 2026. A ton of walks and inconsistent command didn’t instill a ton of confidence in me. But knowing our pitching staff and what they’re capable of, it’s unsurprising, given how well he pitched this season.

Jason Paczkowski: Robert Gasser

While Gasser wasn’t the most improved player on the team, he definitely took a big step forward this season. For most of the season after being brought back up in mid-May, he was up and down in his starts. The turnaround for him started on August 26. Six days earlier, Gasser was pulled mid at-bat against the Mariners after a particularly bad inning. Then, against the Mets, Dustin May was hit by a comeback line drive in the first at-bat of the game, and Gasser was called on to soak some innings. He was brilliant in that appearance and saved the Brewers’ bullpen. In his last nine appearances (eight starts and a long-relief appearance), he allowed one run or fewer in eight of them. That includes three scoreless starts in the postseason. He’s established his spot in the rotation for 2027.

Adam Zimmer: Joey Ortiz

The correct answer is probably Bauers, although the gap between his improvement and Ortiz’s is smaller than some might think. Ortiz went from being basically the worst hitter in the league to finishing the year hitting .270 with a .730 OPS, and his bWAR jumped from 0.2 last year to 2.6 this year. Bauers went from 0.6 to 3.3. Still, Ortiz struggled in the playoffs and didn’t play every day, while Bauers was a much bigger part of the Brewers’ World Series run, earning NLCS MVP honors along the way.

Newcomer of the Year

Paul Dietrich: Angel Zerpa

Well, we can’t win them all. Zerpa, who I’m still somewhat intrigued by, made 12 appearances for the Brewers, pitched to a 6.39 ERA, was shut down with arm trouble, and had Tommy John surgery in early May. We’ll see if he can get back in the picture by the second half of next season.

Harrison Freuck: Luis Rengifo

Oops. Luis Rengifo was arguably the worst newcomer of the year. Across 57 games, he batted a dismal .205/.280/.254 with no homers, nine doubles, 19 RBIs, and 19 runs scored before he was designated for assignment in mid-June as Cooper Pratt was called up to take over at shortstop. To add insult to injury, Rengifo caught on with the Padres and played great for them — .291/.375/.409 with four homers, 17 RBIs, and 19 runs scored over 38 games — before a season-ending injury. That stretch also included a grand slam against Milwaukee. Ouch.

Jackson Heiden:Kyle Harrison
At the midseason awards, this was looking good. At the revisit, not so much. Harrison had quite the decline in the second half of the season, so much so that he never appeared in a postseason game. If you told a Brewers fan in May that he wouldn’t be a factor in the World Series run, I think they would’ve called you crazy. He had a 2.44 ERA through June, and then from July on, he had an 8.87 ERA. A left forearm/elbow issue in July forced an injured list stint, and then a couple of noticeable mechanical issues led to his second-half slump. While the forearm issue is concerning, he didn’t pitch in October, and has a full offseason to heal, which convinces me that he’ll be back to where he was next year. 

Jason Paczkowski: Kyle Harrison

For the first two months of the season, Harrison was looking like a brilliant offseason acquisition. He had a 1.57 ERA and 2.45 FIP with 73 strikeouts through his first 11 starts, and was a legitimate All-Star candidate. That started to come apart against the Athletics on June 8 in what was a forgettable series for most of the pitching staff. While he had a few more strong starts after that, he ended up on the IL for a month with a forearm/elbow injury, and then just seemed to run out of gas after his return. Hopefully an offseason with some extra rest and conditioning work will help him recover and be ready for 2027.

Adam Zimmer: Kyle Harrison

This looked like the right pick for most of the season, and even though the wheels came off down the stretch, Harrison (1.7 fWAR, 0.5 bWAR) is still in the conversation. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a clear winner for this one. Cooper Pratt is probably the right choice: he matched Harrison’s 1.7 fWAR despite not being called up until June, and he played well in the World Series. You could also make a case for David Hamilton (0.4 fWAR, 1.9 bWAR) or JoJo Romero based on their postseason performances.

As we awake today, we now three weeks remaining with a Major League Collective Bargaining Agreement in place, 21 days before we are faced with the inevitable owner-imposed lockout. As we inch toward the winter, we do have a few things to keep us occupied this week, as Cy Young winners will be announced tomorrow night, which will presumably act as a coronation for Cam Schlittler, before we get to the MVP winners on Wednesday night. It is odd not to have a Yankee in the running for AL MVP these days.

On the site today, Josh discusses the possibility of David Bednar accepting the qualifying offer, and how it would fit with the Yankees’ general approach to roster construction, while a longer-term deal for Bednar could conflict with the team’s plans. Matt will also grade Camilo Doval’s 2026 season (it wasn’t great!), and Kevin writes up Jack Clark, a long lost member of the late-80’s Yankees.

Questions/Prompts:

1. Do you think any of the eight players that received qualifying offers will accept them? Do you think Jazz Chisholm Jr. would’ve accepted if the Yankees had offered him one?

2. Do you think the Yankees’ biggest offseason acquisition will come via free agency or trade this winter?

Major League Baseball’s general managers meetings are an important event on the offseason calendar every year. But the impending lockout puts extra emphasis this year on the three days baseball’s operations leaders will spend in Las Vegas this week.

GM meetings are generally the precursor to the more widely-attended winter meetings in December, but this year’s winter meetings are expected to be canceled in the face of a lockout. And if anxiety over a possible salary cap doesn’t put the free agent and trade markets on ice, the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement on Dec. 1 could spur early action.

The Dodgers are poised to make news one way or another, with an opening on the coaching staff to fill, a finalist for a major award, and the belle of the 2026-27 free agent class testing the market.

Here are four story lines to follow as GM meetings get underway:

Read more:'Things run their course.' Dodgers and hitting coach Aaron Bates part ways

The search for a hitting coach

The Dodgers parted ways with co-hitting coach Aaron Bates last week. So, expect president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes to field questions about their plans to fill the position, from qualities they’re seeking in a replacement to a timeline for the hire or promotion.

The rest of manager Dave Roberts’ coaching staff, including co-hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc are expected to return.

Tarik Skubal’s free agency

Tarik Skubal, whom the Dodgers acquired from the Tigers at the trade deadline this year, is the top free agent in a fraught offseason and will be a fascinating litmus test for the market.

The last time MLB was counting down to a lockout, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Javy Báez all signed nine-figure contracts before it went into effect at the end of the day on Dec. 1. Like Seager and Semien, Skubal is represented by agent Scott Boras.

Whether the Dodgers will make an early aggressive play to bring back the two-time Cy Young winner remains to be seen.

“I can’t say enough good things about the impact that he made in such a short period of time,” Friedman said in his end of season news conference last month. “We have a tremendous amount of respect for him on and off the field, and for us, he’s put himself in this position to go out and be a free agent. And for us, it’s, continue to talk to Scott. But he and his family have to make a choice over where they want to spend the next X number of years, and obviously we wish him nothing but the best.”

Comparison to 2021

Just how similar will this November be to 2021, when teams committed $1.9 billion to free agents before the lockout? The short answer is: it’s hard to say with any certainty.

“I never have any feel for how a market’s going to play out,” Friedman said. “We’ve kidded ourselves in the past that, like, ‘Hey, we think this is going to happen,’ and it just takes on its own life form. So for us, it’s just about being as prepared as we possibly can be, and pouncing on opportunities.”

Though the expectation of a lockout remains the same, the owners and players are fighting over a potential overhaul of the system this time around. MLB’s push for a salary cap in their early proposals — even though their latest pushed back implementation to 2028 — could affect teams’ behavior.

Read more:Shaikin: Mark Walter says he won’t sell the Dodgers, but his plans keep changing

Most Valuable Player race

It’s baseball awards season, with the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America announcing award winners for four straight days.

Detroit Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle was named the American League rookie of the year and Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart was honored as the National League rookie of the year on Monday.

Manager of the year awards will be revealed Tuesday, Cy Young and reliever of the year on Wednesday, and finally MVP on Thursday.

Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is a finalist for National League MVP. But Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is the favorite to win it, which would end Ohtani’s three-year MVP streak. Ohtani has won four MVP awards in all, two in the AL and two in the NL.

On Wednesday, MLB will also hold its own awards show, announcing All-MLB teams, and awards such as the Hank Aaron Award, the comeback players of the year, the Mariano Rivera & Trevor Hoffman Relievers of the Year, the Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter of the Year and the MLB executive of the year.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are spending this offseason trying to figure out how to take that next step as a team.

The Pirates are coming off of their first winning season since 2018, so momentum is building, but they are still far from where they need to be. MLB.com contributor Will Leitch conducted recent power rankings where the Pirates were right in the middle at No. 15.

“Pirates fans were disappointed with this season, but it was still a team that had a winning record, with an offense that exceeded most expectations. If the lineup can thrive again, you should probably expect that rotation, most of all Paul Skenes, to be much better in 2027 — and it wasn’t that bad in the first place,” Leitch wrote.

The only National League teams that ranked ahead of the Pirates were the Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers.

It appears that there are two full tiers of teams that rank ahead of the Pirates. For them to move into that Rachelon, one of two things will have to happen: they will need to considerably upgrade the roster through free agency, or they will need to count on their top prospects to continue growing. In an ideal situation, both of these things happen, which will give the Pirates a chance to enter the playoff conversation for the first time in a decade.

BD community, where do you think the Pirates rank in terms of the rest of the league? Let us know in the comments section below.

Bob Boone, World Series champ, Phillies Wall of Famer dies at 78 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Bob Boone, one of the pillars on which the Phillies’ 1980 World Series Championship team was built, has died at age 78.

The former catcher was a member of the Phillies Wall of Fame and part of the first three-generation family in baseball history.

His father, Ray, was an infielder who played 13 seasons in the majors and was a two-time All-Star with the Detroit Tigers. Ray Boone then went on to become a legendary scout with the Boston Red Sox. Bob’s sons, Bret and Aaron, both had long playing careers in the majors. Aaron currently manages the New York Yankees. Bret and Aaron spent parts of their youth in the Philadelphia area. Aaron, in fact, remains a staunch Eagles fan.

Bob Boone played 19 seasons in the majors, 10 with the Phillies, seven with the California Angels and two with the Kansas City Royals. He later managed the Royals and Cincinnati Reds.

Though he played in the National League at a time when Cincinnati’s Johnny Bench dominated the catching position, Boone held his own against the eventual Hall of Famer. He won two Gold Gloves with the Phillies and five more with the Angels in the American League. He was a three-time All-Star with the Phillies. He caught 2,225 games in his career, third-most ever behind Hall of Famers Ivan Rodriguez and Carlton Fisk.

Boone’s ascension to elite status as a catcher came after he converted to the position as a minor-leaguer in the Phillies system. He had been a third baseman when the Phillies selected him in the sixth round of the 1969 draft out of Stanford University. Andy Seminick, the catcher for the Phillies’ 1950 Whiz Kids NL pennant-winning team, tutored Boone as he converted to catcher. The move ultimately cleared the way for Mike Schmidt to take over at third base. Schmidt, who went on to make the Hall of Fame, had been a shortstop at Ohio University when the Phillies selected him in the second round of the 1971 draft.

Along with Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, Garry Maddox, Tug McGraw and others, Boone went on to become part of the core that won the Phillies’ first World Series title in 1980.

In that series, Boone was involved in one of the most memorable plays in franchise history. In the ninth inning of the clinching Game 6 win over Kansas City at raucous Veterans Stadium, he dropped a Frank White pop-up in front of the Phillies’ dugout. First baseman Pete Rose, who had also converged on the ball, was there to snatch the loose ball out of the air for the second out. In later years, Boone consistently defended himself, saying the ball should have been Rose’s all the way. He claimed Rose had gotten to the ball late, forcing him into a difficult play far from his position.

In the end, the ball stayed in Boone’s glove. He recorded the final putout when McGraw struck out Willie Wilson to end the game and clinch the title.

Boone was a strong postseason performer. He played in 36 postseason games in his career and hit .311 with two homers and 13 RBIs. In the 1980 World Series, he hit .412 (7 for 17) with four RBIs. As a 38-year-old with the Angles in 1986, he went 10 for 22 (.455) with a homer and two RBIs against Boston in the American League Championship Series.

ESPN | Bradford Doolittle: It’s awards week! For Yankees fans, Wednesday is the night to pay attention as that’s when the AL and NY Cy Young Award winners will be announced. There shouldn’t really be much suspense for the Cy Young recipient in the American League. This should be Cam Schlittler’s hardware to take home. Doolittle agrees as he predicts who will win each award this week. “When you look at the progression of the AXE leaderboard, it was pretty much a wire-to-wire win for Schlittler, and I suspect he’ll be a near-unanimous choice when the AL Cy Young is announced.” You love to hear it.

MLB.com | Max Ralph: Closer David Bednar is a free agent. I suspect the club’s (and the fans’) prefered course of action is to re-sign Bednar and hand him the keys to the ninth inning again. But in the event that falls through, the Yankees will have to look elsewhere for a closer in 2027. For a look at free agent, trade, and in-house options, peruse Ralph’s article. Seriously though. Just bring back Bednar.

MLB.com: MLB.com took us around the hot stove Monday, looking at the latest rumors. For the Yankees, it’s that the club plans to upgrade third base. Pulling from Jon Heyman’s reporting for the New York Post, MLB notes that third base and the bullpen sit atop the Yanks’ needs as we head into a three-week offseason stretch before Major League Baseball inevitably locks the players out. I think it’s probably fair to say everyone was expecting third base to sit atop the Yankees’ pyramid of needs.

It’s the start of another week here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the fall chill. We’ve been expecting you. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. We still have a few tables available. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

Last week, I asked you which 2026 Cub free agent would you most want the Cubs to re-sign and bring back? With 36 percent of the vote, you want to see catcher Carson Kelly be a Cub in 2027. It was a close vote, as 35 percent of you would like Clay Holmes to return.

Here’s the part with the music and the movies. You’re welcome to join us. It should be a good time.

Tonight we have a piece of classic jazz from the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967. This is Tony Bennett with Count Basie and his Orchestra playing the Duke Ellington tune “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.”

I’ve got a holdover Halloween movie with the 1992 film Highway to Hell, directed by Ate de Jong and starring Patrick Bergin, Chad Lowe and Kristy Swanson. This film gave me a lot of video store “Direct-to-video” vibes, although I guess it did get a token theatrical release before going almost direct-to-video. I’ve read online that it’s become a cult classic over the years and it is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel, so some people think it’s a worthwhile project. For me, it was very reminiscent of the film that you checked out of your local video store because you got there at 8 pm on a Saturday night and everything else was gone. You’re expecting it to be really bad and after you watch it, you’re like “Hey! That’s a lot better than I expected.” Not that it’s really good, but it was at least good enough that you’re not embarrassed that you rented it. And if you’re really a fan of those direct-to-video B-movies, then you probably told your friends about it.

First off, Highway to Hell is based on the myth of Orpheus, so there’s at least a little ambition there. Charlie Sykes (Chad Lowe—Rob’s brother) and Rachel Clark (Swanson) are young lovers running off to Las Vegas to elope against her parents’ wishes. Rachel is underage and still a virgin, so that probably plays some role in their objections.

Convinced that Rachel’s parents have hired someone to follow them, Charlie takes a dark backroad to Vegas. He gets a bit lost, so he stops for gas and directions at Sam’s (Richard Farnsworth) gas station. He tells them to get back on the interstate but if they insist upon going on, don’t stop between the two Joshua trees. Of course, Charlie ignores him, falls asleep and goes off the road between the two Joshua trees. The two encounter Hellcop (C.J. Graham) who immediately grabs Rachel and disappears with her.

Charlie returns to Sam who tells him that the Devil abducts young virgins on that road, taking them down to Hell to serve him. It happened to him fifty years ago when his young fiancée Clara (Pamela Gidley) was carried to the underworld. (When Charlie asks why he didn’t say this in the first place, Sam says he never would have believed him) Charlie is determined to go down to Hell and retrieve Rachel, so Sam gives Charlie a special shotgun with demon-splashing shells and his old souped-up thirties-era car. Charlie goes into the underworld where he needs to fight off countless demons and navigate the politics of Hell to bring Rachel back to the world of the living.

There are a lot of cameos along the way. The entire Stiller family is here—Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara and their children Ben and Amy Stiller all have minor roles as mythological or just the damned in Hell. Singer Lita Ford appears as a hitchhiker. Gilbert Gottfried plays Hitler in Hell, which, is pretty much what it sounds like. Gottfried doing his schtick dressed up as Hitler. Hell also has “reserved” table for four still-living people in 1992, including one very surprising choice. So as you can tell, this is a film that wisely isn’t taking itself seriously.

Obviously this is a low-budget affair with a lot of silly stuff going on. The scares are pretty rare as the film almost always goes for ridiculous over frightening. The demon makeup is pretty standard stuff for an early-nineties direct-to-video film. Most of the film was shot in the desert areas of Arizona and Utah.

It’s hard to say a lot about Highway to Hell other than watching it in 2026 gave me real nineties video store flashbacks. This is probably one of the better titles that is more concerned with the title and box illustrations to catch a browser’s eye more than what’s actually on the videocassette. It’s to the credit of director de Jong and the cast that they didn’t just phone the whole film in. Despite it’s Greek myth setup, it’s not meant to be any sort of classic. But everyone does just enough to keep the popcorn flowing on a Saturday night in someone’s basement den.

Here’s the trailer for Highway to Hell. No, the AC/DC song is not in the movie. I’m sure they’d have loved to have had it but it was likely too expensive. The film does have some Tangerine Dream electronic music for the musical score.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.

I’ve been talking a lot about free agent left-hander reliever Adrián Morejón in this space lately, despite the fact that all of the articles linking him to the Cubs are speculation and not based on inside information, as far as I know.

But we need something to talk about and there’s no doubt that the Cubs would like Morejón at the right price. Over the past three seasons, Morejón has been healthy, averaging just over 70 innings a year. In those 223.1 innings, Morejón has struck out 248 batters and posted a 2.58 ERA. He’s only allowed ten home runs over three years and issued just 66 walks.

If the Cubs are going to sign Morejón, they’ll have to give him a lot more money than they’ve traditionally been comfortable giving a relief pitcher. Kiley McDaniel estimates that Morejón will accept an offer of four years and $88 million and Tim Britton goes nuts with a five-year, $110 million offer.

I have trouble seeing Morejón getting over $100 million, with McDaniels’ estimate more in line for a top-flight reliever who is still young at 27. But, there’s another factor that Britton brings up and I’ve seen other people bring up in connection to the Cubs. What if Morejón converts to starting?

It’s not an outlandish idea. Morejón was a top starting pitching prospect when he signed with the Padres after leaving Cuba. He started throughout the minors and even started a bit with the Padres until he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021. Since he’s returned from that, he’s pitched out of the bullpen and has been dominating. But several reports state that he still wants to start.

That’s where the Cubs come in. The Cubs could certainly use Morejón out of the bullpen, but the starting rotation is a bigger issue of concern for the Cubs this offseason. Beyond money, the Cubs could offer Morejón a chance to start. As a reliever, Britton’s contract estimate for Morejón looks too rich for the Cubs’ (and most other teams’) blood. But as a starter who doesn’t turn 28 until February? That’s a bargain for a young top starter.

So tonight’s question is “Would you offer Adrián Morejón a chance to start to sign with the Cubs?” Obviously if he couldn’t hack it, he could move back to the bullpen as what we hope would be an effective, if overpaid, reliever. But the Cubs would have to give it some time to succeed. You couldn’t promise Morejón a chance to start and then pull the plug after six-to-eight starts. If the Cubs did that, no free agent would ever trust this front office again. You’d have to at least give him a year, unless he decided to move back to the bullpen on his own earlier.

There have been some notable successes in turning relievers to starters lately. Clay Holmes was a top-ten closer before the Mets decided to make a starting pitcher out of him. The White Sox successfully moved Garrett Crochet from the bullpen to the starting rotation. Tampa Bay moved Griffin Jax from the pen to the rotation last year with some success as well.

Morejón certainly has the stuff to start and he started in the minor leagues and early in his major league career. However, he also has never thrown more than the 86 innings in one season that he did in 2026. So it’s not like he has a long tradition of being able to stand up to the physical demands of being a starter. And in case you’ve forgotten, the Padres moved Morejón to the bullpen because he got injured as a starter and had to have Tommy John surgery. So there’s no doubt that there is a lot of injury risk in such a move.

So what would you do? Would you sign Adrián Morejón as a starting pitcher?

Thank you for stopping by tonight. We’re always happy to have a friendly face around. Please get home safely. Call a ride if you need one. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow night for more BCB After Dark.

There was a time and place when swatting 32 homers and driving in 112 runs during one’s rookie year would have made one an absolute lock to take home Rookie of the Year honors. In calendar year 2026, though, there are a whole lot more factors that go into the decision making process among voters to determine which rookies were the most valuable during their respective first full seasons.

Sal Stewart of the Cincinnati Reds put up those marks in a monster campaign this past season, and though he was named a finalist for the National League Rookie of the Year Award last week for his accomplishments there were another pair of finalists that were every bit as deserving in their own ways.

On Sunday night, though, the voting revealed it was Sal who’d taken home the award, besting both JJ Wetherholt of the St. Louis Cardinals and Carson Benge of the New York Mets.

Sal’s counting stats were impossible to ignore for voters despite Wetherholt having put up a 4 WAR season on the back of excellent defense at shortstop and Benge having put together a 4 WAR season of his own on the back of a 20 homer, 20 steal season.

Despite advanced metrics clearly giving the all-around advantage to the non-Red in the equation, Sal actually ran away with the voting with Benge finishing 2nd and Wetherholt a close 3rd.

Stewart’s win earned the Reds a Prospect Promotion Initiative (PPI) pick in next summer’s draft with his win, as well as the overall bonus pool bump that will come with an additional pick at the end of the 1st round. Sal also became the first Red to take home Rookie of the Year honors since Jonathan India back in 2021.

Congrats to Sal on a wonderful RoY campaign.

LAS VEGAS — Carson Benge’s impressive debut season ranked among the best in Mets history but left him short of MLB’s top rookie prize. 

Sal Stewart was named National League Rookie of the Year on Monday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, with Benge second in the voting, ahead of JJ Wetherholt. Benge’s Mets teammate, Nolan McLean — who wasn’t named among the finalists last week — finished fourth in the voting. 

Stewart received 20 of the first-place votes. Benge received seven first-place votes and Wetherholt got three. 

Benge, 23, thrust himself into contention for the award with a strong August and September, but ultimately couldn’t overcome Stewart’s offensive production. Stewart, the Reds first baseman, posted a .263/.330/.457 slash line with 32 homers and 112 RBIs. 

Benge’s candidacy hinged largely on his 20-20 season (homers and stolen bases) along with his outfield defense. Most notably, Benge led NL right fielders with 10 assists. 

His arm was on full display in August when he threw out two runners at the plate in the same inning. 

Overall, Benge produced a .282/.346/.430 slash line with 20 homers, 65 RBIs and 22 stolen bases. 

“I think I deserve it,” Benge told The Post in late September, when asked about the NL Rookie of the Year award. “I think I showed in the whole season, doing all facets of the game that I did a pretty good job of showcasing my talent.” 

Benge had a .498 OPS on May 2 before beginning his offensive surge. He posted an .878 OPS over the season’s final two months. 

“Going into [the season] I really had no clue what to expect,” Benge said on MLB Network. “I knew that anyone I was going to be playing against was a lot better than anything I have ever been a part of before, but I always had that confidence in myself and knowing and staying true to myself that I can hang with just about anyone is a big part of my game.” 

Tom Seaver, Jon Matlack, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Jacob deGrom and Pete Alonso are the Mets players who have won NL Rookie of the Year. 

Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle won the award in the AL after a stellar all-around season that sets him up to be a franchise cornerstone for the next decade. 

McGonigle received 28 of 30 first-place votes. 

— With AP 

A pretty straightforward headline, but I was curious to see how many votes Bryce Eldridge would actually receive after the announcement that he wasn’t a finalist. It turns out he received two (2) of the thirty (30) votes and both were for 5th place — not enough to land him that spot. The top 5 vote-getters:

1. Sal Stewart, Reds — 170 points
2. Carson Benge, Mets — 107
3. JJ Wetherholt, Cards — 99
4. Nolan McLean, Mets — 70
5. TJ Rumfield, Rockies – 49

And he actually had fewer votes than #6 on the list, Logan Henderson. He tied with Atlanta pitcher Didier Fuentes, and both had one more vote than another Mets rookie: outfielder A.J. Ewing.

Now, if you want to know why Stewart got it, the answer is simple: 32 home runs and 112 RBI. Otherwise, his 112 wRC+ was just 6th. Eldridge led the NL rookie pack at 131. By fWAR, his 1.8 was outside the top 6th, but Stewart’s was just 2.0 thanks to -8.8 Defensive Runs Above Average. What could have been, had Eldridge’s season not been cut short by a doorway… right?

By straight WAR, the vote would’ve gone Wetherholt (4.6), Benge (4.3), Rumfield (2.6), Miami’s Joe Mack (2.2), and the Stewart. Benge had 20 homers, trailing Stewart by a wide margin, but what if Eldridge had avoided that doorway and gotten to 20 or 21 himself? It might’ve been an interesting discussion.

As it stands, Eno Sarris’s bet has paid off in year one.

Cincinnati will receive the Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) draft pick because they put Stewart on their Opening Day roster. The Giants didn’t want to do that, but as the #4 most important story of the season, there’s a certain what could’ve been quality to his season. The kid showed he could hang in the big leagues and adjust back against the league’s adjustments to him. This happened to one of the other finalists.

Carson Benge was hitting .204 through his first 36 games but then .301/.362/.454 (.817 OPS) over the rest of the season with 17 homers and 54 RBI, along with superlative defense. Eldridge was down to .248/.342/.426 (.768) after 76 games, but in his final 31 (138 PA) he slashed .319/.413/.543 (.956 OPS) with 6 homers and 29 RBI. Wetherhold faded down the stretch (along with missing time due to injury) and hit .213/.310/.276 over his final 34 games (145 PA). Sal Stewart hovered around a .720 OPS over the final weeks of the season but, rather crucially, he played in all 162 games. But, to be clear, and to take off the fan hat: this is some serious competition. This was a very tough field. Eldridge would’ve had to get much closer to those counting stats to make up for the lack of defensive pizzaz and to overcome the games played disparity with Stewart.

It’s not the ideal outcome for such a promising season, but this has the chance to be a quaint footnote in his professional story. He made a big impression at age 21 but didn’t even sniff the Rookie of the Year Award, but went on to become a perennial All-Star and a notable slugger in Giants history. I mean, that’s the hope, right?

The real shocker in this is how the Bay Area writers stayed away. Eldridge’s two votes came from David Venn of MLB.com from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Arizona chapter and The Athletic’s Charlotte Varnes from the Philadelphia chapter. Eldridge didn’t even face the Phillies this season and in Arizona he hit just .286/.286/.333 in 21 PA (5 games); though, overall: .311/.367/.467 with a homer and 8 RBI in 49 PA (12 total games).

The SF chapter votes were from Jaeho Kim (MK Sports) and Shayna Rubin (The Chronicle). Rubin’s 5 were the top 5 (slight difference in order) and Kim’s ballot omitted Benge in favor of Didier Fuentes.

Payton Tolle was not named the American League Rookie of the Year for 2026 tonight. This was expected.

Tolle was great, of course. He was the first Red Sox pitcher under the age of 24 since Dennis Eckersley to make at least 4 starts of at least 6 innings without allowing a single run. He was also the only rookie in baseball history to post a strikeout rate above 28% and a walk rate below 7% while throwing at least 140 innings. And while both of those stats are a little too niche to be taken seriously by most people who would read them, they both point to an undeniable truth: Payton Tolle is really young and really good.

Unfortunately for him, Kevin McGonigle is also really young and really good. He’s even younger than Tolle, in fact, and yet he led the entire American League in bWAR, his 7.1 besting Yordan Alvarez and Bobby Witt, Jr. to round out the top-three. When a rookie is arguably the most valuable player in the entire league, the Rookie of the Year voting is reduced to a mere formality. McGonigle ran roughshod over the league and was justly rewarded.

But let the record show: the Red Sox tried their damndest to get Tolle the award, by which I mean the Red Sox pitching staff completely dominated McGonigle this year. In 5 games against the Sox, McGonigle slashed just .238/.273/.286. That was the third-lowest OPS he put up against any team. Moreover, McGonigle ducked when he had a chance to do damage against Tolle himself, sitting out the first game of an early May series when Tolle was on the bump. Was he merely being platooned against a tough lefty, as left-handed rookies often are, or is he a coward?!?!

Probably the former, but hopefully we get a chance to see a Tolle-McGonigle matchup at some point next season.

In 2024, when Paul Skenes won National League Rookie of the Year, Jackson Chourio finished as one of the NL’s three finalists. In 2025, Caleb Durbin made it back-to-back years with a Brewers finalist as Drake Baldwin took home the award.

This year, despite a trio of talented rookies in Logan Henderson, Cooper Pratt, and Luis Lara, all of whom contributed to the Brewers’ title run, Milwaukee was shut out. The finalists in the National League were Cardinals second baseman J.J. Wetherholt, Mets right fielder Carson Benge, and the winner: first baseman Sal Stewart of the Reds.

Henderson did pick up some down-ballot votes, receiving one second-place vote, one third-place vote, and three fifth-place votes. The right-hander put up 3.3 bWAR (1.3 more than Stewart) and went the whole regular season without allowing more than three runs in a start.

Stewart, who received 20 first-place votes and 170 total points, is an old-school pick whose power is his calling card; despite posting just 2.0 bWAR, he finished eighth in the NL with 32 home runs and second with 112 RBIs.

Finishing in second place with 107 points was Benge, who doesn’t lead the way in any one statistical category: he’s just good at everything. He’s an above-average hitter (118 OPS+) and an above-average defender (+1 DRS), he posted a 20/20 season, and he got better as the year went on. Benge’s standout tool is his arm; he finished the season with 10 outfield assists, including one on August 17 that was thrown at 103.9 mph.

Wetherholt, who finished third with 99 points, is already one of the best defensive players in the league; he led all NL rookies with 4.6 bWAR despite hitting at a roughly league-average level (.704 OPS, 102 OPS+). His +25 outs above average and +23 fielding run value both ranked second in the majors, behind only Pete Crow-Armstrong.

In the AL, Kevin McGonigle ran away with the award, receiving 28 of 30 first-place votes. In his first season as a big-leaguer, McGonigle led the entire American League with 7.1 bWAR, a ridiculous number that shows just how bright his future is.

Full voting results are available from the BBWAA for the NL and the AL.

Awards Season is officially in full swing now, as the BBWAA will be announcing the winners of their annual awards throughout the week. As usual, the ceremonies got started off with the BBWAA Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards and the flavor of this year’s edition was Central Divison-centric.

Indeed, Kevin McGonigle of the Detroit Tigers and Sal Stewart of the Cincinnati Reds ended up taking home the hardware for the AL And NL Rookie of the Year Awards, respectively.

When it comes to the AL race, it was really no contest as McGonigle finished with 28 of the possible 30 first place votes on his way to becoming the sixth Rookie of the Year Award for Detroit winner — their first winner since 2016 which is when Michael Fullmer took home the honors. McGonigle finished the year with a slash line of .278/.376/.430 with a .357 wOBA, 129 wRC+ and 18 home runs while splitting time equally between shortstop and third base. McGonigle finished the season as the rookie leader in fWAR at 5.4, so it’s not particularly shocking that he took home the honors.

The NL Race wasn’t much closer, as Sal Stewart ended up taking home the honors in comfortable fashion as he received 20 of the 30 possible first place votes. Stewart’s award now makes it nine times that Reds players have won this award now, with the most recent winner before Sal being Jonathan India back in 2021. Stewart finished his year with a .263/.330/.457 line along with a .339 wOBA, 112 wRC+ and 32 dingers on the year. Stewart led all NL rookies in homers, but I will say that it’s kind of shocking that JJ Wetherholt not only didn’t win it but he also finished third behind Carson Benge as well.

With all of that being said, our very own Didier Fuentes did receive some consideration for this award. Atlanta’s top reliever (according to Walt Weiss, himself) earned two fifth-place votes in order to come in eighth-place overall in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, so it’s at least nice to see that Fuentes’s efforts on the mound this season (58 appearances, 73.1 innings pitched, 2.45 ERA (58 ERA-), 2.60 FIP (62 FIP-) didn’t go completely ignored.

BBWAA Awards Week will continue tomorrow night, as we’ll find out if Walt Weiss did enough to earn the honors of being NL Manager of the Year. We’ll see what happens then./f