The 2018 Bless You Boys MLB end-of-season awards

Every year, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) gets to determine important end-of-season awards that have a significant impact on baseball history. For one, those awards, voted on by the writers, impact how those same writers vote on the Hall of Fame. While Detroit Tigers fans should be grateful that Miguel Cabrera is a two-time MVP when Mike Trout exists, they have also seen their favorite players come up short on other ballots (Justin Verlander is a few votes shy of three Cy Youngs, for instance).

While we here at Bless You Boys don’t have a vote, I thought it would be fun to get the staff’s take on the year that was in baseball. Who should be the MVP? Who wins the Cy Young? We answered those questions (for both leagues!) and named Rookies and Managers of the Year as well.

I don’t know that I’m surprised by any of these results. Betts received six of nine MVP votes from our staff, and likely would have finished second on the other three ballots had we done a full vote like the BBWAA. Blake Snell and Justin Verlander tied the Cy Young vote, and I imagine that it will be similarly close when the writers name their winner as well. Verlander may actually get the edge with more second and third place votes this time around, as I could see more writers penalizing Snell for his relative lack of innings pitched. Shohei Ohtani wins our Rookie of the Year Award in a walk.

The lone surprise — at least, to those who don’t know us — might be Kevin Cash taking five of nine Manager of the Year votes. Those familiar with our site and podcast will know that someone* was stumping heavily for Cash behind the scenes. While he is a deserving winner, I imagine Bob Melvin wins the actual award handily since his Oakland A’s actually made the postseason.

*And she didn’t even vote for Joey Wendle.

The National League is a little more clear-cut. While Jacob deGrom is certainly deserving of MVP votes, he will not win the actual award. Christian Yelich should win it easily, while deGrom will probably finish a distant second. No other NL player received MVP votes (sorry, Javier Baez). The Rookie of the Year voting was similarly lopsided, which was a little surprising. However, since the Atlanta Braves made the playoffs, I imagine Ronald Acuña and Juan Soto will go first and second (in that order) on many ballots.

Meanwhile, if deGrom is not a unanimous Cy Young winner, I give up. He was the only played mentioned on our ballots, and any discussion about him was whether he was a deserving MVP candidate. He was the best pitcher in the National League this year, bar none, and absolutely deserves the Cy Young Award. The NL Manager of the Year vote was easily our most diverse ballot, as there are several deserving winners in this year’s wild playoff chase.

Now, it’s your turn!

AL MVP:
AL Cy Young:
AL Rookie of the Year:
AL Manager of the Year:

NL MVP:
NL Cy Young:
NL Rookie of the Year:
NL Manager of the Year: