Biggest questions for Awards Week

Biggest questions for Awards Week

November 14th, 2022

Award season is here. These are the biggest storylines to watch.

The 2022 Rookies of the Year, Managers of the Year, Cy Young Award winners and Most Valuable Players will be announced this week, one each day from Monday through Thursday.

Here are the four biggest questions for Awards Week 2022 -- one for each award.

1) Will and be the rare 1-2 MVP tandem?

Goldschmidt and Arenado might have been the two best players in the National League this season. They're both NL MVP finalists. And they're both perennial contenders looking for their first career award -- as is the third finalist, Manny Machado. But Goldschmidt and Arenado are also on the same team. Will the two Cardinals split the vote, allowing Machado to swoop in and win? Or will we get an all-St. Louis 1-2 finish ... either Goldschmidt-Arenado, or Arenado-Goldschmidt?

Goldschmidt, Arenado and Machado had very similar seasons -- they were nearly identically valuable by Wins Above Replacement, all finishing with around 7 WAR as the top three players in the NL. But for Goldschmidt and Arenado, to be the top two in the MVP race would mean joining a very short list of teammates to finish 1-2 in the voting.

Only six other tandems have done it in the divisional era: Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds for the 2000 Giants, Bonds and Bobby Bonilla for the 1990 Pirates, Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark for the 1989 Giants, Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray for the 1983 Orioles, Joe Morgan and George Foster for the 1976 Reds and Vida Blue, and Sal Bando for the 1971 A's.

2) Can join the three-Cy Young club?

Verlander's season was incredible. He was coming off Tommy John surgery at 39 years old, and he won the MLB ERA title, made his ninth All-Star team, led the Astros to a second World Series championship and picked up his first career win in the World Series along the way. There's only one accolade left to add: his third career Cy Young Award.

Verlander, who won with the Tigers in 2011 and the Astros in 2019, is an AL finalist again in 2022, along with Dylan Cease and Alek Manoah. He looks like the favorite to win it. If he does, he'll become just the 11th pitcher all-time with three or more Cy Young Awards and join a list of baseball's great aces: Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Steve Carlton, Greg Maddux, Clayton Kershaw, Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martinez, Jim Palmer, Max Scherzer and Tom Seaver.

3) or … which Braves phenom is the NL Rookie of the Year favorite?

The AL Rookie of the Year is almost definitely going to be Julio Rodríguez. But in the NL? How can you pick between the Braves' two rising stars?

Harris or Strider? Sparkplug center fielder or overpowering pitcher? With all due respect to the Cardinals' Brendan Donovan, the third finalist, the path to NL Rookie of the Year goes through Atlanta. But between Harris and Strider, it's a coin flip.

Harris and Strider were both so good for the NL East champs this season. The 21-year-old Harris batted .297 with 19 home runs and 20 stolen bases and played terrific outfield defense. The 24-year-old Strider went 11-5 with a 2.67 ERA and 202 strikeouts in 131 2/3 innings, the first rookie pitcher with 200 K's since Yu Darvish in 2012. Which one will be the Rookie of the Year? Which one should be the Rookie of the Year? There's no wrong answer.

4) Can Buck Showalter make history as a four-team Manager of the Year?

Buck Showalter took the helm for the Mets and guided them to a 101-win season in his first year in New York and their first postseason berth since 2016. Now he has a chance at a historic fourth Manager of the Year Award.

Showalter is one of the three NL finalists along with division rival Brian Snitker of the Braves, who just barely edged the Mets for the NL East title, and Dave Roberts of the 111-win Dodgers. He'd be the Mets' first Manager of the Year.

Showalter was AL Manager of the Year in 1994 with the Yankees, 2004 with the Rangers and 2014 with the Orioles. If he wins in 2022, he'll join Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa as the only skippers to win four times. He'd also join the group of managers to win the award in both leagues: Cox, La Russa, Lou Piniella, Jim Leyland, Bob Melvin, Davey Johnson and Joe Maddon.

But Buck would be the only manager to win a Manager of the Year Award with four different teams. And he'd be doing it with four different teams in four different decades.