The Yankees and Mets are common finalists for year-end awards.
As revealed on Monday night, of the eight major categories for the Baseball Writers Association of America Awards (each league's MVP, Cy Young Award, Rookie of the Year, and Best Manager), four Yankees teams and two Mets teams were selected. The team is in the top three.
The Yankees' final candidates (among the top three vote-getters) are as follows:
• Aaron Judge and Juan Soto face off against the Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. for American League MVP.
Judge is the frontrunner for the MVP award for the second time in three seasons.
The Captain led the major leagues in a number of things, including 58 home runs, 144 RBIs, and a 1.159 OPS, in an impressive year that likely didn't end with a championship but with the hardware.
Witt had a great season overall, with a .332 batting average, the best in baseball, 31 stolen bases, a .977 OPS, and great defense as a shortstop. It was a great season, even if it wasn't as historic as Judge's.
Soto earns hundreds of millions of dollars based on his annual walk performance, but he has never won an MVP award and was runner-up to Bryce Harper for the Nationals' top spot in 2021.
He's at least in the top three this year, receiving more votes than the Orioles' Gunnar Henderson.
• Lewis Gil and Austin Wells are among the top AL Rookie of the Year, along with Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser.
Gill (3.50 ERA in 29 starts) looked like a Cy Young Award candidate until May, when he had a 1.99 ERA, but he lost his career late in his first full season after Tommy John surgery. I felt tired and still qualified for revelation.
Wells (.718 OPS in 115 games, solid defense as a catcher) looked like the disciplined bat the Yankees had developed in the minors, settling into a No. 4 hitter before struggling late in the season.
Kauser (.768 OPS, 24 home runs in 153 games) is a strong candidate, earned the job out of camp, and is running it.
The Mets finalists are as follows:
• Francisco Lindor, National League MVP finalist – an award never before won by a Mets player.
The odds are against Lindor, who will be a heavy underdog against the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani along with Arizona's Ketel Marte.
Lindor makes a similar argument to Witt — talented offensively and defensively, with an .844 OPS and consistently elite defensive ability for a shortstop — but His stat line looks smaller than Ohtani's.
The Dodgers DH is currently the only member of the club with a 50-50 record after a season in which he hit 54 home runs, stole 59 bases and had a 1.036 OPS.
• Carlos Mendoza, in the top three for National League Manager of the Year. All three finalists, Pat Murphy of the Brewers and Mike Shildt of the Padres, are in their first seasons as managers with their teams.
Mendoza weathered many storms in his rookie season as a major league manager, taking a team that was under .500 in 11 games to the NLCS in early June.
Murphy has done wonders for a small salary, and Shildt has stabilized a strong Padres club that folded a year ago.
Winners in each category will be announced next week.
