Award season is upon us with the conclusion of the World Series, and after rolling out the Gold Gloves on Sunday MLB has now announced the finalists for some of the big individual awards. Headlining them
all are the MVP races, and to no one’s surprise Aaron Judge will finish in the top three for AL MVP once again.
Judge followed up his MVP 2024 with another monster season at the plate, hitting .331/.457/.688 with 53 home runs, 137 runs scored, and 114 RBI. That was good enough for Judge to claim his first batting title in his career, and post a wRC+ over 200 for the third time in his career (204 this year, 220 last year, and 206 in his 2022 MVP season). He’ll be in the top three, but it’s no secret that he won’t be third, as the honor will likely go to either him or Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh who became the third player in AL history to hit 60 home runs in a season. Guardians third baseman José Ramírez rounds out the field of finalists.
The Yankees also had a candidate in another category, the AL Cy Young crowd, but unfortunately Max Fried did not end up a finalist there. The team’s top starter after signing with them in free agency, Fried had to step up once Gerrit Cole was put on the shelf in spring training and did just that: he earned a 2.86 ERA (3.07 FIP) with 189 strikeouts in 195.1 innings and a 19-5 record. Fried was a headliner for the award around the time of the All-Star break, but a summer swoon put him off track even though he finished strong with a 1.89 ERA in September. Boston’s Garrett Crochet, Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, and Houston’s Hunter Brown are the top three for this year’s Cy, but Fried should still get some lower ballot results.
