With the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the World Series last week, it is officially the start of the MLB offseason.
This is the time of year when everyone on social media argues about who should win each end-of-season award. Regardless of who wins these awards, there are a ton of people deserving in each category, but there can only be one winner for each.
So, without further ado, here are my picks for the 2024 MLB Awards.
Manager of the Year is extremely hard to measure given there is no set science to determine who is the best at their job. I predicted Vogt would win this award at the beginning of the year. The Guardians were projected at about 81 wins, and I thought they would win a lot more. They ended up at 92. It is a two-man race between Vogt and
Matt Quatraro, manager of the Royals. Even if he does not win the award, it was a great first season for the Guardians’ new manager.
NL Manager of the Year: Pat Murphy
My initial prediction for NL Manager of the Year was David Bell of the Reds. This one certainly did not age well. (Bell was fired before the end of the 2024 season.) I think this one is a no-brainer. After nine years of managing, the very popular Craig Counsell left the Brewers to manage their rival, the Chicago Cubs. Murphy was Counsell’s Bench Coach from the beginning of his tenure with the Brewers. While I’m sure some missed Counsell on a personal level, it did not affect their production on the field, where they won one more game than last year. To be frank, I do not see any other NL manager winning this award.
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Garrett Crochet
The White Sox were an absolute disaster this year. They were debatably the worst team of all time. However, this should not take away from Crochet’s super solid season. It was his first season starting, and he threw 146 innings. Before that, since his rookie season in 2020, he had thrown six, 54, zero, and 12 innings. In his 146 innings pitched, he had a 3.58 ERA, 117 ERA+ (100 is league average), 2.69 FIP, 12.9 K/9, and 2.0 BB/9. This all came after him getting
Tommy John surgery in 2022 and pitching not a ton in 2023.
NL Comeback Player of the Year: Chris Sale
This one is also a no-brainer. Many people (including myself) saw Sale as too injury-prone and thought he could never get back to who he once was. He had not made an All-Star game since 2018, had Tommy John surgery in 2020, registered just 42 innings in 2021, and threw only innings in 2022. Both his production and his volume exploded this year. Sale went 18-3, led the majors in ERA, and will likely win
Cy Young. He was one of the more underrated stories of the season.
This will likely be the second year in a row that an Oriole wins the Rookie of the Year. Even though Cowser was not as good as Gunnar Henderson last year, he was still super solid. Cowser hit 24 home runs and amassed an OPS+ of 123. He got off to a red-hot start and battled through some occasional slumping before rounding out his Rookie of the Year-caliber campaign. I would fully expect Cowser to come back next year and potentially make the All-Star Game.
NL Rookie of the Year: Paul Skenes
This is easily the toughest two-man race for Rookie of the Year can remember. On one hand,
Jackson Merrill is very, very good. This season, he hit 24 home runs, slashed .292/.326/.500, and had a 130 wRC+. Merrill also finished 15th in fWAR. However, even though Skenes did not pitch in as many innings, he was one of the best rookies of all time. He had a 1.96 ERA, 214 ERA+, 11.5 K/9, and 2.0 BB/9. Even though you could argue games played for Merrill, I think Skenes’ production outweighs Merrill’s.
This was a relatively easy choice. Skubal was consistently great all season long. He led all of baseball in wins and strikeouts and led the AL in ERA, ERA+, and FIP. This is all super impressive given that he was never anything close to this dominant until this year. It will be very interesting to see him attempt to replicate this next season.
NL Cy Young: Chris Sale
I think that Sale is going to own at least two more pieces of hardware in a few weeks. Not only did he have the best comeback story this year, but he was also the best pitcher in the National League. He led all of baseball in wins (tied with Skubal), ERA, ERA+, FIP, HR/9, and K/9. Never did I think we would see the White Sox or Red Sox version of Sale again. And we didn’t; we saw a better version.
I don’t think I need to spend a ton of time talking about this one. If you lead all of baseball in WAR, home runs, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS+, you deserve to win MVP in your league.
Despite only being a DH, this was an easy pick. Similar to Judge, Ohtani led the NL in pretty much all of the most important stats. He led in WAR, home runs, RBI, OBP, SLG, and OPS+. As bad as I wanted to pick
Francisco Lindor, he’s penalized by his brutal start to the season.
Conclusion
The 2024 MLB season brought forward an incredible array of talent and inspiring comeback stories, making this year’s award races more exciting than ever. While only one player or manager will claim each award, every nominee deserves recognition for their achievements and contributions to an unforgettable season.
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