For your consideration: Awards non-finalists who deserve recognition

The American and National League finalists for the four major Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) awards were all announced on Monday night, and it’s tough to argue with any of the 24 total selections: Lots of players (and managers!) had terrific seasons.

But while the three finalists for each award will receive all sorts of love leading up to next week’s announcements of the winners, I can’t help but feel for those who had fantastic years but fell just short of finalist status. So today, let’s shine a spotlight on one candidate for each award who did not make that cut but still very much deserves recognition. These aren’t so much “snubs” as those who suffered from the fact that there were only so many finalist slots available.

Here’s some love for these non-finalists:

Rookie of the Year

AL: Wyatt Langford, LF, Rangers
The defending World Series champs’ whole season went sideways on them early, so you can forgive people for losing track of Langford, who made the Opening Day roster but got off to a slow start, then missed three weeks with a strained right hamstring. Langford ended up having a pretty terrific year, though. He hit 16 homers, stole 19 bases and posted a 111 OPS+ in 134 games, and he was solid defensively, playing a good left field and even filling in as a center fielder from time to time. In fact, Langford was first among AL rookies with 3.9 WAR per Baseball Reference, despite being younger (22) than anyone else in the top 10. People will be paying closer attention to the Rangers again in 2025, and Langford is one of the central reasons for that.

NL: Masyn Winn, SS, Cardinals
There’s a lot of uncertainty right now in St. Louis, with a front office transition and talk of trading some of the team’s veterans. But one player it knows it will be building around -- and one of the primary reasons the Cardinals did improve by 12 games from 2023 to ‘24 -- is Winn, who established himself as the shortstop in St. Louis for many years to come. He was a wiz defensively and made significant strides at the plate from his rough ‘23 debut, hitting .267 with 15 homers and a 102 OPS+. In fact, for all the deserved love for the other rookies in the NL, there was only one in all of MLB (Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes) who had a higher bWAR than Winn’s 4.9. Winn was actually 19th among all position players in bWAR. Not bad for a 22-year-old.

Manager of the Year

AL: Joe Espada, Astros
No manager was under more heat over the first half than Espada. In his first season after taking over the dominant AL franchise of the past decade, Espada saw his team get off to an absolutely miserable start, beginning with a four-game home sweep at the hands of the Yankees and falling all the way to a shocking 10-game deficit in the AL West on June 18. You actually heard some pundits argue that the Astros should start selling at the Trade Deadline. Espada, a well-liked baseball lifer, kept his hand firmly on the till, and eventually, it all turned around. The Astros fought all the way back to yet another division title, and while the seven-year AL Championship Series streak did finally end, Espada won over most of his doubters and is no longer hearing whispers. It got scary there for the Astros for a while. But Espada kept his cool, and thus, his team did as well.

NL: Dave Roberts, Dodgers
Sure, fine: Votes were due before the postseason began, and therefore everything that Roberts did in the playoffs to lead his team to a World Series championship -- and he did some pretty great stuff -- isn’t included in anyone’s consideration. But here’s an argument that Roberts was excellent in the regular season as well. Remember, his rotation began breaking down long before October arrived, and he had to deal with injuries to Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, two of his signature stars. Roberts has had so much success that he’ll forever be judged on what happens in the playoffs -- which is why he’s receiving so much love right now -- but this may have been one of his most difficult regular seasons to navigate. So much went wrong for the Dodgers during the season. They still ended up with the No. 1 overall seed en route to that World Series championship. It should probably be a little more appreciated than it has been.

Cy Young

AL: Framber Valdez, LHP, Astros
Valdez didn’t make the top three in Cy Young voting this year, but he’ll surely make the top 11, which will make it the fourth time in the past five years he’ll rank that high. Valdez is just consistently good, year after year, and this was another fantastic season, one in which he maintained his ability to keep the ball in the ballpark (and put up the lowest hits-per-nine-innings rate of his career, at 7.15). Valdez is also consistently overlooked. Including, again, this year.

NL: Reynaldo López, RHP, Braves
Skenes, for good reason, has earned serious Cy Young consideration for putting together a sub-2.00 ERA over 23 starts. But you know who else did it? That’s right: López. His 1.99 ERA over 26 games (25 starts) was the second best in MLB behind Skenes, and nearly half a run lower than his teammate Chris Sale, who is the clubhouse favorite to win this award. The difference between them, of course, was that Sale stayed healthy all year (a rarity for him, obviously). López, in his first season making 10 or more starts since 2019, was limited to just 135 2/3 innings and missed the end of the season with shoulder inflammation. That innings total, it must be said, is still 2 2/3 more than Skenes threw. Are we sure López wasn’t the most dominant pitcher in the NL this year?

MVP

AL: Jarren Duran, CF, Red Sox
The Yankees’ Aaron Judge led the AL in nearly every major offensive category this year, leaving only hits for the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., runs for the Bombers’ Juan Soto and … actually, nearly everything else for Duran. The outfielder had his breakthrough season in 2024, leading the AL in doubles, triples, plate appearances and at-bats. He was there nearly every day for the Sox, their clear star, and doing just about everything -- it’s difficult to imagine where they’d have been without him. Duran was actually ahead of Soto in bWAR, as well as the Guardians’ José Ramírez, the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez. He did it quietly, or at least as quietly as you can do anything in Boston. But Duran, in ‘24, was a star.

NL: Elly De La Cruz, SS, Reds
Only in this age could someone who is only 22 years old put up a 25-homer, 67-stolen base season and … get overshadowed. Obviously, the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and Judge were the players whose stats made your eyes pop this year -- and the Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr. did it the year before -- so it’s kind of difficult to wrap your mind around what De La Cruz did this year. He leveled up big time -- he also had 36 doubles and 10 triples -- and while there are still issues of plate discipline (an NL-leading 218 strikeouts), there was marked improvement from his rookie season. (His walk rate went up, his strikeout rate went down, his ground ball rate went down, his fly ball rate went up … all good signs.) De La Cruz is still learning. There are more eye-popping stats to come. He’s going to win an MVP at some point, and probably some point soon.