So far 2025 honors seem to be repeat performances from last year. With the exception of the ROY announcement on Monday (which technically can’t be the same as the year before) we’ve had familiar faces hoisting hardware. It started with the rare back-to-back World Series victories by the Los Angeles Dodgers and has continued with the most significant of the Baseball Writers‘ Association of America awards. I’m not complaining, all the winners are deserving. (Although I’m a bit surprised that our friend Stephen Vogt won this year over the Blue Jays John Schneider who took his team from last place in the AL East to within two outs of winning a World Series, but I digress). Pat Murphy winning from the Brewers made both Manager of the Year winners not only consecutive, but also for both it was their rookie and sophomore seasons as managers.
The MLB Cy Young winners followed this same trend with little controversy. Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers won his second consecutive award beating out Garrett Crochet of Boston and Hunter Brown of Houston this year. Skubal is the first American League Pitcher to go back-to-back since Pedro Martinez did it in 1999-2020. The Pirates Paul Skenes was the unanimous National League winner beating out the Phillies Cristopher Sánchez and Dodgers World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to take home the hardware. (Award voting takes place prior to the post-season.)
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With last night’s announcement of the Cy Young Award winners, that only leaves the two MVP’s left of the major MLB awards. The American League competition seems to have the most intrigue. Will Aaron Judge take home his second straight award and continue the 2025 trend, or will Cal Raleigh cap his record-setting year with an MVP Award. The National League honor seems destined to land in the arms of Shohei Ohtani for the fourth time and second consecutive year as the Dodgers Designated Hitter.
As Nico pointed out yesterday, the voting bodies have seemed to get it right so far this year. They’ve certainly done right by A’s fans. The question is, how long before we have contenders in every award category wearing kelly green and gold. Is the next rookie of the year wearing an Aviators uni; or even a RockHounds or Lugnuts logo on his chest already? Will Nick Kurtz improve on his rookie season to place him in contention for next year’s MVP award? And while we’re optimistically looking forward, will Jacob Lopez, Luis Morales or even J.T. Ginn be in Cy Young contention. How many Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards will the A’s take home next year?
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Update from the AFL yesterday: