MLB Awards

Ah its that time of year once again. The time when the best of the best in a single season of Major League Baseball get honored. Its a time to acknowledge individual achievement in a great team sport. Naturally, 2020 wasn't exactly the year everybody was expecting or hoping to see, but still it left us with some pretty cool moments and memories. And it gave us some pretty impressive performances along the way as well. We will break down all the big awards as well as revel the silver slugger winners for 2020. So here's who walked away with the hardware.

Silver Sluggers:
American League:
Catcher: Salvador Perez (Royals)
1st Base: José Abreu (White Sox)
2nd Base: DJ LeMahieu (Yankees)
3rd Base: José Ramírez (Indians)
Shortstop: Tim Anderson (White Sox)
Ootfield: Teoscar Hernández (Blue Jays)
Outfield: Eloy Jiménez (White Sox)
Outfield: Mike Trout (Angels)\
Designated Hitter: Nelson Cruz (Twins)

National League:
Catcher: Travis d’Arnaud (Braves)
1st Base: Freddie Freeman (Braves)
2nd Base: Donovan Solano (Giants)
3rd Base: Manny Machado (Padres)
Shortstop: Fernando Tatis Jr. (Padres)
Outfield: Ronald Acuña Jr. (Braves)
Outfield: Mookie Betts (Dodgers)
Outfield: Juan Soto (Nationals)

Designated Hitter: Marcell Ozuna (Braves)

Manager Of The Year: AL Kevin Cash (Rays) & Don Mattingly (Marlins)

Both winners here won in pretty convincing fashion too. Start with Kevin Cash. He had been a finalist in each of the last two years but came up short in the voting. This year, Cash lead the team to an AL East title with the second best record in all of baseball. This coming with at least 10 guys who had been projected to be regulars on opening day missing time this year with injuries. Still they won the East and came within two games of becoming world champions. As for Donny Baseball, he's no stranger to winning awards, as he won AL MVP in 1986. He joins, Joe Torre, Kirk Gibson and Don Baylor as the only guys to win MVP and Manager of the Year. And what Mattingly did with the Marlins is truly amazing. Miami hadn't made the playoffs since their 2003 World Series win, but this year they clinched one finishing 2nd in the NL East. What makes that even more impressive is that he did it with a team that had been so riddle with man games lost due to COVID. For what he did with that Marlins team, Mattingly deserves a medal of honor.

Rookie Of The Year: AL Kyle Lewis (Mariners) & Devin Williams (Brewers)

Its the first time that a relief pitcher has snagged top rookie honors since Craig Kimbrel did it in 2011, so thats a pretty big accomplishment for Devin Williams. He also made history in another way in that Williams became the first pitcher ever to win the award without logging a single win or save. How is that possible? Just look at his numbers in the 2nd half of the summer. From July 29th on he didn't allow an earned run in 24 and a third innings in 20 appearances. That's a level of domination out of the pen. Then there's Kyle Lewis, the Mariners outfielder who won via unanimous vote, becoming the first Mariner to win the award since Ichiro in 2001. He lead Seattle in batting average, home runs, walks and runs and was high up in the AL rookie ranks in runs scored (37), walks (34), total bases (90) and games played (tied, 58). Lewis tied for first in home runs (11), finished second in hits (54) and RBIs (28), and tied for fifth in stolen bases (5). Impressive numbers for a kid who, at the start of camp, didn't look like he was going to make noise in the Seattle lineup/

Cy Young Award: AL Shane Bieber (Indians) & Trevor Bauer (Reds)

For the first time since Justin Verlander in 2011, we have a unanimous winner in the AL Cy Young award and it's the Tribe's Shane Bieber, the fifth time that an Indians pitcher has won the award. He went 8-1 in 12 starts with a 1.63 ERA and a league best 122 strikeouts. Oh and opponents were hitting just .167 off him this year, which is tied for the lowest in the AL since 1969 (Pedro had the same number in 2000). Yes it was a shortened season, but the fact that he was still the fastest to hit the 100 strikeout mark says a lot. Bauer wasn't as dominating in the NL, going 5-4 in his 12 starts on the year, finishing with a 1.73 ERA, two complete game shutouts and 100 K's on the year. To win the award, he managed to fight off Yu and back to back winner deGrom with an insane 1.29 ERA over his final five starts of the season. Bauer did it by keeping hitters off balance most of the year.

Bauer win was the first for a Reds pitcher

MVP: AL Jose Abreu (White Sox) & Freddie Freeman (Braves)

Freddie Freeman collected all but two of the first place votes, Mookie got the other two, in the NL for MVP voting. When the year started, it didn't even look like he was goign to play this year. He was so sick, he couldn't walk from one end of the house to the other. Now he's the NL MVP.  Freddie hit .341 on the year with 13 homers and 53 RBI. He also had the second highest OPS in all of baseball, behind only Juan Soto of the Nats. He also had the second highest WAR in the NL, behind only Betts of the Dodgers. As for Abru, he finished the year hitting .317 with 19 homers and an AL best 60 RBI. The numbers for Abru only tell cold facts. That White Sox team is a really young club, and he was a big factor playing the role of mentor on that baseball team