The only thing better than arguing and speculating about who will win each major MLB award? Arguing and speculating about who will win each major MLB award... once the finalists are all revealed and the races get even narrower.
There should be some close races this year — and some for which it's an understatement to call it a runaway — and the top three finalists for each one were revealed by the league on Monday night.
Let's see if your predictions are still alive, if those preseason futures bets are still afloat and if your favorite players/teams are represented. Here are all of the finalists for MLB's most prized accolades at year's end.
National League MVP
Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies: After a good season in 2019 and a great shortened season in 2020, Harper showed the Phillies fan base why he was worth his massive contract with an awesome 2021. Leading the majors with a .615 slugging percentage and 1.044 OPS, his highest figures since his 2015 MVP campaign, Harper's bat was as dangerous as any in the league.
Juan Soto, Washington Nationals: There came a point this year where you simply couldn't prevent Juan Soto for getting on base. His .465 on-base percentage led the majors, as did his 145 walks, and even if he doesn't win the award this year — which he very well may — you can practically guarantee he'll win some throughout his career.
Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres: Though his Padres disappointed overall, Tatis Jr. was as good as ever. An NL-high 42 home runs to go along with 25 steals show that he's a rare blend of power and speed that few players today — or ever — possess from the shortstop position.
American League MVP
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays: For a while, it looked like Vlad Jr. had a real chance to win the AL Triple Crown. If the crown was determined by home runs (48), runs (123) and OPS (1.002), then he would have taken it home, but he came up just short in RBI (111) and batting average (.311). Still, there wasn't much to complain about in his third season.
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels: There isn't much about Ohtani that hasn't already been said. The hitter who pitchers/pitcher who hits absolutely raked in 2021, slugging 46 home runs, leading the majors in triples (8) and going 9-2 on the mound with a brilliant 3.18 ERA. Those numbers simply don't make sense.
Marcus Semien, Toronto Blue Jays: After a disappointing 2020, Semien landed with the Blue Jays, and boy did they reap the benefits of that free-agent signing. With 45 home runs, 102 RBI and 115 runs, Semien was yet another strong offensive weapon in that scary Toronto lineup.
National League Cy Young
Corbin Burnes, Milwaukee Brewers: Burnes was awesome in a small sample size in 2020, going 4-1 with an incredible 2.11 ERA in 59.2 innings pitched. He multiplied his workload by nearly three times his 2020 amount in 2021... and that ERA stayed nearly the same. Leading the league with a 2.43 figure, Burnes went 11-5 and recorded 236 strikeouts, leading all of baseball with ratios of 12.6 K/9 and 6.88 K/BB.
Max Scherzer, Los Angeles Dodgers: A two-time NL Cy Young winner with the Nationals, a midseason trade to the Dodgers boosted Scherzer's performance and put him right back in the conversation. After going 8-4 in Washington with a 2.76 ERA, Scherzer's second team saw an even more dominant performance: 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA. All in all, his 0.864 WHIP and 6.0 H/9 were tops in baseball.
Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies: Wheeler impressed with both the quality of his pitching — a 2.78 ERA along with an NL-best 247 strikeouts — and the quantity, seeing as he faced more batters and pitched more innings than anyone else in the majors. A true workhorse, Wheeler was just outside the top ten in Cy Young voting last season and could very well make the jump up to No. 1 this time around.
American League Cy Young
Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees: It was something of a tale of two halves for Cole, who was 6-2 with a 1.78 ERA and 97 strikeouts after his first 11 starts. The rest of the season, which happened to come after the league's crackdown on sticky substances, wasn't as kind, though he still posted his lofty strikeout numbers and found ways to win for the Yankees. 16 wins led the AL, and he was the runner-up in strikeouts with 243.
Lance Lynn, Chicago White Sox: Lynn seems to get better with age, putting together by far his finest season to date at age 34 in his White Sox debut. After three months of the season, he had a stellar 2.06 ERA and actually brought it below 2.00 during July, though a knee injury impacted his performance later in the year. He did not reach 162 innings pitched — otherwise, he would have won the AL ERA title with a 2.69 figure.
Robbie Ray, Toronto Blue Jays: Ray seems to be out in front by a pretty wide margin in this race, taking home the ERA title (2.84) and the strikeout title (248) in the American League. It was a remarkable season, especially seeing as Ray was nothing short of terrible in 2020 (2-5, 6.62 ERA) before he turned it around in a big way.
National League Rookie of the Year
Dylan Carlson, St. Louis Cardinals: Carlson took a little while to get going, as his debut in the shortened 2020 season was nothing special (.200/.252/.364). He performed much better in 2021, however, with 18 home runs and a .266/.343/.437 slash line.
Jonathan India, Cincinnati Reds: A true rookie, India began his career about as well as anyone could have: 10 hits, 10 RBI and a .476/.480/.619 slash line in his first six games. Showing off power and speed, the Reds look to have something special in the middle of the infield going forward in their 2018 first-round pick.
Trevor Rogers, Miami Marlins: His record isn't great (7-8), but luckily, pitching wins don't tell the whole story — or even an important part of it. Instead, look to Rogers' dazzling 2.64 ERA, 10.6 K/9 and All-Star nomination to see how great the 23-year-old was.
American League Rookie of the Year
Randy Arozarena, Tampa Bay Rays: It feels weird calling Arozarena a rookie after his heroic and historic postseason run in 2020, but he fits the bill given his limited regular season playing time prior to 2021. With 20 home runs and 20 steals, Arozarena served as a spark plug for the Rays all over the field.
Wander Franco, Tampa Bay Rays: If you didn't hear about Franco's rookie-year accomplishments, you haven't been paying much attention. Franco lived up to a lot of the hype in 2021, notably reaching base in 43 straight games to tie Frank Robinson's record by the longest in history by someone 20 years old or younger. However, he got called up relatively late and struggled early on, hampering his chances.
Luis Garcia, Houston Astros: We saw a lot of Garcia in the postseason, though it wasn't exactly the best showing for the 24-year-old. Fortunately, that doesn't affect his chances for the Rookie of the Year award, and he showed a lot of promise with Houston throughout the year (11-8, 3.48 ERA).
National League Manager of the Year
Craig Counsell, Milwaukee Brewers: Counsell's Brewers won the NL Central with a 95-67 record despite disappointing production from former MVP Christian Yelich. The Brew Crew's trio of Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta atop the rotation, and great pitching overall, led to yet another good year on Counsell's resume.
Gabe Kapler, San Francisco Giants: In three years as manager prior to 2021, Kapler hadn't recorded a winning season. And despite the fact that the Giants were not expected to do much coming into the year, Kapler not only had a winning season — he had the winningest season in the Giants' 100-plus-year existence (107-55).
Mike Shildt, St. Louis Cardinals: He's not the manager of the Cardinals anymore, but Shildt had another great run with St. Louis. Down the stretch, the team notably picked up 17 wins in a row and was *this* close to beating the Dodgers in the Wild Card.
American League Manager of the Year
Dusty Baker, Houston Astros: Amid a whole lot of drama related to the return of fans, it couldn't have been easy for Baker this season — he even acknowledged it was his "hardest" season — but he led the Astros back to the World Series after finishing atop a competitive AL West.
Kevin Cash, Tampa Bay Rays: Cash notched his first career 100-win season at the helm in Tampa Bay and his second straight year with a winning percentage of over .600. Though he couldn't quite run it back with another World Series run, the Rays could be even stronger given their young core of talent, represented well in the AL Rookie of the Year race.
Scott Servais, Seattle Mariners: If you knew the Seattle Mariners were going to reach 90 wins in 2021... no, you didn't. Servais had his best season yet in Year No. 6 with the Mariners, and he deserves a whole lot of credit, as this cool statistical finding suggests.
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