Newsday's David Lennon reveals end-of-season MLB award winners

What a long, strange season it has been for Major League Baseball. It was the first for the ABS challenge system (an undisputed success) and the fifth for the expanded 12-team playoff format, which again has created plenty of intrigue heading into the final weekend. We’ve had the remarkable resurgence of the White Sox, a pair of tiny-market teams at the top of their respective leagues in the Rays and Brewers, and two below-.500 clubs, the Astros and Rangers, vying to win the AL West by default.

As for the BBWAA awards, some categories seem more clear-cut than others. The ballots are due at the conclusion of the regular season, so the postseason is not among the judging criteria even though the winners are announced in early November.

But that never stops us from handing out our own awards at this time of year, and in the interest of full accountability, my preseason and midseason picks are included as well (spoiler alert: I went 0-for-7 with my March predictions).

Also, because I’m voting for the AL MVP this year, that means I can’t reveal my choice before the official announcements are made, so that category is not included in the awards listed below (the Reliever of the Year is new this season, by the way). Time to open the envelopes.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

CY YOUNG: Cam Schlittler, Yankees

Dylan Cease, who got the All-Star starting nod from his own manager, made this race interesting for a while, but it was pretty much over by mid-September. In only his first full season in the majors, Schlittler went wire-to-wire with a performance worthy of being listed among the greats. He finished with a 1.95 ERA, the AL’s lowest since Justin Verlander’s 1.75 in 2022, and stacked up second-place finishes in WHIP (0.92), opponents’ batting average (.183) and innings (193 2⁄3). Schlittler allowed one run or fewer in 21 starts, a Yankees record and the 10th-most for a single season in MLB history. Nobody had reached that mark since 1964, when Dean Chance had 22.

Midseason: Schlittler

Preseason: Garrett Crochet, Red Sox

  

MANAGER OF THE YEAR:

Chad Tracy, Red Sox

It figured to be nearly impossible to derail Will Venable, who helped get the perennial loser White Sox off the mat and on track for their first full-season, non-pandemic AL Central title since 2008. But then a baseball miracle happened in Boston, where Tracy was summoned from Triple-A Worcester to take over for the fired Alex Cora and authored a 32-5 stretch to put the Red Sox in playoff contention. Under Tracy, the Sox went from 14 games under .500 to 13 games over .500 the fastest in MLB history — only 44 days — and he completely changed the vibe from an early Fenway Fiasco to resurrecting the sorry Sox for a trip to October. Sorry, Will. To do all that in the Boston crucible, with the franchise in flames, deserves the award.

Midseason: Will Venable, White Sox

Preseason: John Schneider, Blue Jays

  

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:

Kevin McGonigle, Tigers

At the All-Star break, McGonigle appeared to be running away with the award, but the ROY field suddenly got crowded in the second half. I’m still sticking with McGonigle, who was tied for the rookie lead in games played (152) and excelled offensively (126 OPS+) while manning a premier defensive position at shortstop. He also was tops among rookies in BB/KK ratio (0.98) and the fWAR leader (5.3) by a comfortable margin. Next up, however, was Guardians lefthander Parker Messick (4.8), who had a dazzling debut with AL rookie bests in ERA (2.55) and WHIP (1.04) in 31 starts.

Midseason: McGonigle

Preseason: Kazuma Okamoto, Blue Jays

  

RELIEVER OF THE YEAR:

Louis Varland, Blue Jays

The defending AL champs had a disappointing season, to put it mildly, but don’t blame Varland, who was dominant in the chances he did have after taking over for former closer Jeff Hoffman during the Jays’ sub-.500 season in the AL East basement. Varland led all AL relievers in ERA (1.29) in 70 appearances (77.0 innings) and was 34-for-36 in save chances. Depending on your definition of this new award, maybe in the non-closers category, there’s an argument to be made for the Yankees’ Paul Blackburn, who finished second in innings (81.0) among all qualified AL relievers and pitched to a 1.56 ERA along with an AL-best 88.9 left-on-base percentage.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

MVP: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs

As much as Shohei Ohtani had been a no-brainer in past years, the same can be said for the amazing Crow-Armstrong this season. It definitely helped, of course, that Ohtani battled numerous health issues that curtailed his pitching superpower and limited him to 132 games. But PCA didn’t back into this award, either, posting the seventh 40-40 season in MLB history (45 homers, 40 steals) and leading the NL in OPS (.949), runs (119) and fWAR (10.7). He also didn’t miss a game and sparked the playoff-bound Cubs from the leadoff spot. Can’t get any more valuable than that — unless he pitched, of course.

Midseason: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

Preseason: Juan Soto, Mets

  

CY YOUNG: Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers

What else is there to say about the Miz? He already set the modern record for the highest-velocity fastball, clocked at 105.5 mph — beating his previous mark — and has blown away every other pitcher, in either league, from a statistics perspective. Through Friday, Misiorowski led the majors in ERA (1.86), K/9 ratio (13.13), WHIP (0.80), opponents’ batting average (.156) and fWAR among pitchers (6.5). Throw in his MLB-best 247 strikeouts, and he’s on pace to become only the fourth pitcher to lead the majors in Ks, ERA and OBA since 1950, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, joining Mike Scott (1986), J.R Richard (1976) and Sandy Koufax (1965).

Midseason: Misiorowski

Preseason: Paul Skenes, Pirates

MANAGER OF THE YEAR:

Walt Weiss, Atlanta

The NL has some compelling cases for top manager. You could give Pat Murphy the three-peat for guiding the Brewers to the first 100-win season in franchise history and fourth consecutive division title. Or Don Mattingly reversing the Phillies’ season after taking over for Rob Thomson. But Weiss gets the call for piloting Atlanta back from a 76-win season a year ago and navigating a barrage of early rotation injuries to keep it atop the NL East since April 8. That was without Ronald Acuna Jr. for an extended period, too. And talk about comeback stories: This was Weiss’ first time in the manager’s chair since being let go by the Rockies after the 2016 season, ending a four-year run in which he never finished with better than 75 wins.

Midseason: Don Mattingly, Phillies

Preseason: Carlos Mendoza, Mets

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Carson Benge, Mets

At least I had Nolan McLean on the radar for this one, and the Mets’ developing ace is going to get some down-ballot votes, thanks to a strong finish that left him with a 3.16 ERA, 26.0% strikeout rate and 1.17 WHIP in his 31 starts. But the award goes to Benge, who edges Sal Stewart’s impressive power display (32 homers, 111 RBIs) with the better all-around season. Benge is the only 20-20 rookie and hit .280 — nearly 20 points higher than Stewart — and his 115 OPS+ narrowly trails the Reds slugger (119). Benge, who played 155 games, also seemed to make highlight-reel catches on a nightly basis and ranked third in the NL with 10 outfield assists, trailing only Andy Pages (14) and Jackson Merrill (11).

Midseason: JJ Wetherholt, Cardinals
Preseason: Nolan McLean, Mets 

RELIEVER OF THE YEAR: Mason Miller, Padres

Let’s start with the staggering 16.57 K/9 ratio, which of course was the best in the majors and nearly three whole strikeouts higher than second place, the 13.97 posted by the Mariners’ Andres Munoz. To put that in perspective, the next five relievers on the list are separated by mere fractions of a strikeout. That’s how far above Miller is from the elite reliever crowd. He also whiffed almost half the batters he faced (48.1%) and had MLB’s lowest opponents’ batting average (.143). Miller was 38-for-41 in save chances for the playoff-bound Padres.