We are only a few days out from the World Baseball Classic, which means it is just about time for my annual prediction of all the MLB awards. I am not very good at it, but it is the persistence that counts, right?
MVP
American League: Aaron Judge
There is a very real claim that the two best players in MLB history are playing in the league right now, and Aaron Judge is one of them. He hit 53 home runs last year, and batted .331, leading all of baseball. So, he gets on base at a fantastic clip, and he is in the top five in home runs? In fact, the only way to topple him off the top of the home runs leaderboard
is to make a catcher have the greatest season in his team’s history, have a DH sell out for the long ball at every bat (an average 91 points lower than Judge), or be the other best player in MLB history as I mentioned earlier. Yeah, I can not see anyone toppling Judge in the AL this year, unless moving the fences in Kansas City helps Bobby Witt Jr. hit 10-15 more bombs, and he reverts to his 2024 form hitting-wise.
National League: Shohei Ohtani
Call it glaze, call it what you want, there is simply no one that can keep up with him if he keeps doing what he has been doing. Ohtani had the first 50/50 season (50 home runs and 50 stolen bases) in MLB history in 2024, and in 2025 he followed it up with a year that was nearly as good: 55 home
runs, 102 RBIs, and a league leading 146 runs. Plus, last year, he made his return to the mound, where he is (when healthy) arguably a top 10 pitcher in the game. He had 47 innings pitched last year, and is looking to keep that going this year. If my prediction is correct, and he does win MVP, I think it is very real to put him in the GOAT conversation.
Cy Young
American League: Tarik Skubal
Again, another chalk pick, but I have zero reason to doubt him. Skubal brought two Cy Youngs that he won already to his arbitration hearing, and without even having to use them, he was awarded a record setting $32 million dollar salary. He did overperform his metrics a little bit last year, for example he had a 2.21 ERA last year but had a 2.71 expected ERA. However, with a pitcher who has consistently seen success, either a regression to the mean will still mean elite in his case, or he will continue to outperform.
National League: Yoshinobu Yamamoto
He was my pick to win Rookie of the Year in 2023, and while he did not take that one home, I feel safer about this pick. He had an incredible run in the playoffs, where he threw multiple complete games (in back to back starts) and won World Series MVP. I do not think he can keep the 1.02 ERA magic he had in the postseason, but I think it’s very possible he keeps some momentum going. Plus, the re-addition of Ohtani to the rotation for a full season could potentially help to take the stress off Yamamoto and fellow Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki, whose rookie campaign was not as successful.
Rookie of the Year
American League: You may be thinking I would take Munetaka Murakami or Kazuma Okamoto, one of the two Japanese superstars who came over from the NPB this offseason. However, I am not, because Japanese hitters (aside from the obvious), have not seen much success transferring as Japanese pitchers have. You have your pick of examples, from Seyia Suzuki of the Cubs, Jung Hoo Lee of the Giants, or Masataka Yoshida of the Red Sox. All are passable hitters, but they do not make fans line up outside ticket offices like a fireballer like Yamamoto or even someone like Paul Skenes would. That being said, my pick for ROTY is Leo De Vries of the Athletics. Formerly a Padre, De Vries found himself in Sacramento through the Mason Miller trade. Described as athletic, and with serious offensive ability, De Vries is going to have to show out this year to prove that trading the best reliever in the country was not a mistake.
National League: Konnor Griffin
“Griffin is not only clearly the best prospect in baseball, but one of the top handful of prospects ever evaluated during the current era of FanGraphs scouting, which goes back a little over 10 years. He’s a franchise-altering entity whose talent rivals that of Bobby Witt Jr., a young, level-headed Hanley Ramirez, or a faster Carlos Correa…This is a complete player, an absolute monster who might make Paul Skenes the second-best guy on his team..”
Fangraphs wrote that on their top 100 prospects list about Griffin, a 19 year old in the Pirates organization. If he is half as good as this report makes him out to be, then this pick is a slam dunk.