The Major League Baseball All-Star Game marks the unofficial halfway point of the baseball season. It also heralds the arrival of the slowest sports week of the year, where for several days none of the four major pro sports are in action.
So let us mark (and pass) the time by handing out some awards for the first half of the 2018 MLB season. We’ll be running through MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year for both leagues.
I should note that for the individual awards, team success will be of negligible importance (hence the “individual” part).
AL MVP: Mike Trout, Angels
I dearly wanted to mark down Mookie Betts for this spot, and there’s plenty of evidence to support the Boston right fielder’s case: at the break, Betts is ahead of Trout in runs scored, RBI, batting average, on base plus slugging percentage (OPS), and OPS+. Betts is also the best player on the best team in baseball, which always helps your MVP case with the voters.
But I soon realized that I was overthinking things. Much like how LeBron James is the MVP of the NBA every year even when he doesn’t win the award, Trout is the best baseball player in the world until proven otherwise.
Despite his talents going to waste once again on an underachieving Angels team, Trout is having arguably the best season of his already-Hall of Fame career. Of all his incredible numbers, this one is perhaps the most impressive: in an era where strikeouts are at an all-time high, Trout currently has more walks (84) than punchouts (83).
Throw in his world-class defense and baserunning, and you have one of the most unique talents to ever play the game.
NL MVP: Freddie Freeman, Braves
This has not been a great year for National League hitters so far. You could argue that Trout, Betts, Jose Ramirez, and maybe even J.D. Martinez would be the MVP in the National League if they switched leagues.
That being said, Freeman has the strongest case of any Senior Circuit regular thus far. As the driving force of a young and emerging Atlanta team that sits just a half game out of first place at the All-Star break, Freeman has gone about his business as one of the game’s unheralded superstars.
Freeman doesn’t lead the league in any major category, but he’s been the most complete hitter in the league. His 162-game pace reads like this: .315 average, 28 HR, 105 RBI, 102 runs, 43 doubles.
In a season with no National League hitters putting up any earth-shattering numbers, Freeman’s quiet excellence is enough to take home the hardware.
AL Cy Young: Chris Sale, Red Sox
Unlike the NL MVP race, the field for AL Cy Young is absolutely stacked this year. Justin Verlander, Luis Severino, Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole, James Paxton, Blake Snell… It’s really been incredible to see so many great pitching performances in one league.
But for me, Sale has been the man to beat since the beginning of the year. Boston’s offense has gotten a lot of the attention for the team’s dominant first half, but Sale has been almost unbeatable every fifth day for the Red Sox.
Sale has a decent chance at the league’s pitching triple crown, as he currently leads the AL in strikeouts (a whopping 188) and ERA (2.23). And his 10 wins could very well reach 20 if the Red Sox continue their torrid pace.
While Sale’s strikeouts numbers are routinely elite, it’s been his pinpoint control that makes him one of the game’s best: those 188 strikeouts are matched by a mere 33 walks thus far, good for a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 6.06.
Speaking of strikeout-to-walk ratio — one of the best indicators of how well a pitcher actually performs — guess who leads all qualified Major League pitchers in history in that category?
Chris Sale.
NL Cy Young: Jacob deGrom, Mets
This might have been the toughest call of all. There might not be a pitcher in baseball who’s better at his best than Washington’s Max Scherzer.
But I give the edge to deGrom, party because the guy needs a win. deGrom has been the definition of a hard-luck loser this year for the lowly Mets: deGrom’s stellar line of a 1.68 ERA, 149 strikeouts, 0.97 WHIP, and 2.32 Fielding-Independent Pitching (FIP) has been rewarded with a record of… 5-4.
No great pitcher is recent history has received worse run support. That shouldn’t take away from deGrom’s brilliance. He’s done all he can to earn a trade to a legitimate contender.
AL Rookie of the Year: Gleyber Torres, Yankees
Two-way Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani looked like a shoo-in for this award before he went down with an injury, and he may very well leapfrog the competition down the stretch.
At this point, though, Torres takes the cake. The young Yankees infielder has given the Bronx Bombers yet another powerful bat in their intimidating lineup.
He already has 15 homers and 42 RBI in just 63 games, as well as a .294 batting average that is incredibly good for a 21-year-old.
NL Rookie of the Year: Juan Soto, Nationals
Soto’s numbers on their surface are All-Star caliber: a .301 average, nine homers, 28 RBI, 32 runs, and a .929 OPS in just 51 games.
Now consider the fact that he’s just 19 years old. Even the best 19-year-old baseball players usually don’t sniff the big leagues, let alone play every day, let alone put up those kinds of numbers.
In fact, by some measures, Soto is having the best season by a teenage player… ever.
AL Manager of the Year: Alex Cora, Red Sox
There are usually two types of Manager of the Year winners: it’s either for a team that had low expectations and took everybody by surprise; or it’s for a team that’s been indisputably the best in the game. Cora and the Red Sox fall into the latter category.
Yes, he’s gotten incredible seasons from Betts, Sale, and J.D. Martinez. But Cora has also gotten the most out of a roster that underperformed in 2017 and turned them into a powerhouse.
It’s a far more relaxed atmosphere in the pressure cooker that is Boston, and it’s turned the Red Sox into a team that nobody wants to play.
NL Manager of the Year: Gabe Kapler, Phillies
This sure didn’t seem like a strong possibility when the season began. Kapler’s unorthodox managerial style plus some dubious decisions ruffled a lot of feathers in Philadelphia.
But all he’s done since then is lead the young Phillies to first place in the NL East with a 53-42 mark through the first three and a half months of the season.
Even more impressive is the fact that Philadelphia doesn’t boast a ton of star power: starter Aaron Nola is an ace, but outside of him, it’s been an all-hands approach for the Phillies.
It’s going to be tough to hold off both the Braves and Nationals down the stretch, but Kapler and the Phils have defied expectations so far.
