On Monday, two days after the conclusion of a thrilling, dramatic, historic, and downright awful World Series, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America unveiled the finalists for the four major regular season awards: Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and Cy Young. We knew the San Francisco Giants would have no representation in the first three categories, but there was a good chance that their ace Logan Webb would be listed as one of the three finalists for the National
League Cy Young Award.
Alas, Webb was not. And in a cruel twist of fate to dig the final knife into the brutal 2025 season for Giants fans, the player who was named a finalist in Webb’s spot was none other than Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, fresh off a World Series MVP performance that has far too many rushing to erase Madison Bumgarner from their memories.
Yamamoto is a fitting and deserving finalist, as Webb also would have been (and, it’s worth noting, voting was done before the postseason). We knew that Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Christopher Sánchez of the Philadelphia Phillies would occupy two of the three spots, but the third could easily have gone to Webb, Yamamoto, or the Phillies Jesús Luzardo. Webb ranked third in fWAR (5.5), behind Skenes (6.5) and Sánchez (6.4), but ahead of Luzardo (5.3) and Yamamoto (5.0). Webb was viewed much more harshly by bWAR, which had him 13th in the National League at 3.9, while Yamamoto was seventh at 5.0 (Luzardo was a slightly better brand of 3.9, and came in 11th).
The difference between the fWAR and bWAR can be explained by the difference in valuing ERA versus FIP, and that’s ultimately what did in Webb’s chances. He ranked “just” eighth in the National League with a 3.22 ERA, while Yamamoto was second with a 2.49 ERA (Luzardo was back in 11th, at 3.92). FIP told a different story, with Webb third in the NL with a tidy 2.60 mark, which was closer to Skenes (2.36) and Sánchez (2.55) than to Luzardo (2.90) and Yamamoto (2.94). Webb also led the National League in innings pitched and total strikeouts, though his strikeouts per nine innings rate was quite a bit behind Luzardo, Yamamoto, and Skenes.
The Cy Young winner will be revealed on November 12, and then we’ll see the full ballots and find out where Webb ended up. My guess is that it will be a fourth-place finish for the Giants leader, who finished sixth a year ago, second in 2023, and 11th in 2022. But while he won’t finish in the top three this year, he at least is taking home some hardware, after winning his first Gold Glove on Sunday.
As for the American League, the nominees are Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers, Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox, and Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros.
In the other categories, the National League MVP nominees are Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies, and Juan Soto of the New York Mets, while the AL nominees are Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, and José Ramírez of the Cleveland Guardians. In Rookie of the Year voting, the National League finalists are Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin, Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin, and Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Cade Horton. The American League finalists are Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson, and Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony. The Manager of the Year finalists in the National League are Pat Murphy of the Brewers, Rob Thompson of the Phillies, and Terry Francona of the Cincinnati Reds; in the American League, the finalists are Stephen Vogt of the Guardians, Dan Wilson of the Mariners, and John Schneider of the Toronto Blue Jays.
