AL MVP: DJ LeMahieu
There are a lot of good choices for AL MVP for this shortened 2020 season but I just don’t know how you can pass up on DJ LeMahieu. The AL Batting Champ carried the Yankees alongside another MVP candidate Luke Voit. DJ is 2nd in the AL in WAR, leads position players in the AL in rWAR, wRC+, and wOBA (Different types of hitting stats). Most “Valuable” Player is DJ LeMahieu because if you took DJ off the Yankees this season they aren’t making the extended playoffs and that’s a fact. DJ carried the Yankees and has stats to prove why he’s the MVP of the AL. Shane Bieber will be the runner up for me because MVP’s shouldn’t go to pitchers and I’ll stand by that. Yes Bieber’s stats are insane and he’s 100% the AL CY Young but he pitches 1 every 5 days so he’s not contributing everyday like DJ was to the Yankees. Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, and Jose Ramirez are all good candidates but aren’t the main factor of why their team’s are succeeding and I feel like DJLM is more valuable to the Yankees then those guys are to their respective teams.
NL MVP: Manny Machado
This is a scorching hot take. Yes Freddie Freeman is qualified to be NL MVP but I’m gonna base this off of “Value”. The Padres weren’t supposed to be 2nd best record in the NL good this year in any type of season. But 1/2 of the reason why the Padres were as good as they were was because of the play of Manny Machado. Machado had a .304 BA, with 16 HR’s, 47 RBI’s, .580 SLG%, .950 OPS, and 158 OPS+. According to Baseball Reference, Freeman only has a 0.1 more WAR than Machado so take that however you would like. Fernando Tatis Jr, and Mookie Betts also put up MVP seasons but didn’t have Machado or Freeman stats.
AL CY Young: Shane Bieber
Like do I even need to explain this to people? Shane Bieber had a league leading 1.63 ERA, lead the league in Strikeouts with 122, lead the league also in ERA+, FIP, H9, and SO9. Yeah I know those stats are insane and now you know why he’s an MVP candidate. This should be unanimous and if it isn’t then the voting is rigged I’m sorry but how does one vote against these stats.
NL CY Young: Trevor Bauer
The streak of Jacob deGrom has ended in 2020 and it was a hard decision for me to choose. deGrom is like the LeBron of baseball because every year you can say LeBron should be MVP because he’s the best player in the world and everyone knows that and that’s the same case for deGrom. We know deGrom is the best pitcher in baseball but Bauer beats him out this year with an ERA of 1.73, a WHIP of 0.795, and was third in Strikeouts with 100 on the dot. Bauer has worked very hard for this and there isn’t a better human being to earn this award then Trevor Bauer.
AL Manager of the Year: Kevin Cash (Rays)
NL Manager of the Year: Don Mattingly (Marlins)
AL Rookie of the Year: Kyle Lewis (Mariners)
NL Rookie of the Year: Devin Williams (Brewers)
TheDyspatch 