The All-Star break has come and gone, and greater than 60 % of the 2025 schedule is full. So in the case of awards races, we have now a reasonably good thought of how issues are shaping up. Or will we?
In spite of everything, there’s nonetheless a whole lot of baseball left to be performed, and loads of time for somebody to make a post-break run at glory. Subsequently, we tasked six MLB.com writers and researchers with figuring out these darkish horses — one per every of the six greatest offseason awards handed out by the Baseball Writers’ Affiliation of America (BBWAA): AL and NL MVP, AL and NL Cy Younger, and AL and NL Rookie of the Yr.
Our standards right here was easy: Choose a participant who didn’t end within the prime two in MLB.com’s most up-to-date workers ballot for that award. How daring did our writers go? Learn on to search out out.
All statistics up to date by Sunday.
Tarik Skubal is eligible right here, nevertheless it’s troublesome to label the very best pitcher in baseball and the reigning unanimous AL Cy Younger Award winner as an MVP darkish horse in good religion. So let’s flip our consideration to a different Tiger who began Tuesday’s All-Star Sport.
Simply 24 years outdated, Greene has already slugged 25 dwelling runs this season, besting his profession excessive from 2024. That places him on tempo for 41 dingers, which might be essentially the most by any Tiger at such a younger age, passing the 36 homers {that a} 24-year-old Hank Greenberg hit in 1935 — when he was named AL MVP.
Greene’s bat has packed fairly a wallop because of his excessive uppercut swing, however he’s doing greater than showcasing his energy; he’s turning into a extra full hitter. Non-fastballs have given him suits at instances prior to now, however this season, Greene is batting .292 with a .595 slugging proportion in opposition to breaking balls and offspeed pitches. That’s helped him submit a bevy of non-public bests, together with a 140 wRC+, which ranks eighth amongst certified AL hitters.
Greene is just not a completed product; he nonetheless whiffs and chases out of the strike zone too usually. However he’s the very best offensive participant on the workforce with the AL’s finest report. That truth alone makes him worthy of MVP consideration.
Rewind to July 10, 2021. Acuña makes a leaping try at a deep fly ball to proper discipline in Miami, comes down awkwardly and sustains a torn ACL. The Braves win that day to enhance to 44-44 however lose 5 of their subsequent seven video games, and hope for a playoff berth appears misplaced.
Solely the Braves get scorching, keep scorching and go on to win the World Sequence with out their finest participant, who ultimately heals up and captures his first MVP award with an absurd 40-70 season in 2023.
Now think about that taking place in reverse. Acuña returns from one other torn ACL to a struggling Braves workforce with dwindling postseason probabilities. And this time he’s the one main the cost. It’s a state of affairs nonetheless in play in 2025. Barely.
Let’s say he cracks 18 second-half dwelling runs and reaches 30 for the 12 months. The Braves sneak right into a Wild Card spot whereas enjoying their finest baseball down the stretch.
We all know baseball writers love narrative, and what may prime that? In spite of everything, it’s the Most Invaluable Participant award, and it’s powerful to generate extra worth than main your workforce to the postseason in opposition to all odds and reminding everybody of your celebrity standing alongside the best way.
Like in 2021, the Braves will most likely want a major addition or two on the Commerce Deadline to even take into consideration reaching the postseason, and who is aware of in the event that they’ll even be consumers? However up to now, Acuña is doing his half, with a 1.047 OPS and 13 dwelling runs in 48 video games.
Two-and-a-half extra months of that, and we would have a two-time MVP on our fingers.
After unanimously profitable the AL Cy Younger Award final 12 months, Skubal figures to have extra competitors this 12 months. That could possibly be Hunter Brown, Garrett Crochet, Max Fried and deGrom, who’re all having glorious seasons.
Within the case of deGrom, it’s been fairly the expertise to see him again in full power on the mound. After throwing simply 197 1/3 innings throughout 35 begins from 2021-24, deGrom has a 2.32 ERA, 113 strikeouts and simply 24 walks in 112 1/3 innings this 12 months. The 37-year-old right-hander cleared 100 innings in a season for the primary time since 2019 and he made his first All-Star workforce since 2021.
Amongst certified American League starters, deGrom’s 2.32 ERA solely trails the two.19 mark by Skubal and Crochet, whereas he ranks within the prime 10 in FIP (3.28), strikeout charge (26.2 %) and stroll charge (5.6 %). This seems like Skubal’s race to lose proper now, however deGrom and a handful of different pitchers are in a powerful sufficient place to make this race attention-grabbing.
Plus, if deGrom can seize a 3rd Cy Younger Award, he’d be simply the twelfth pitcher to tug that off, and would make himself a reputable Corridor of Fame contender, although his accidents robbed an enormous chunk of his 30s.
Sánchez could not have been an All-Star, however he certain is pitching like the most effective pitchers in baseball. Amongst certified beginning pitchers, the left-hander ranks inside the highest 10 in ERA (2.50) and FIP (2.75); his 3.2 fWAR is the fourth highest amongst NL pitchers, trailing solely Zack Wheeler, Paul Skenes, and Logan Webb. Sánchez’s wipeout changeup is likely one of the sport’s elite weapons, holding the opposition to a .146 batting common with a 46.2% whiff charge. In the meantime, his energy sinker helps generate a floor ball charge within the 96th percentile.
After a so-so begin to the season — he carried a 3.45 ERA into Might — Sánchez has pitched like an ace for some time now. Since June 1, he’s posted a 1.63 ERA in an eight-start span. He’s a throwback workhorse, too: Sánchez has allowed two runs or fewer whereas pitching at the least six innings in eight consecutive begins. That’s the longest such streak for any beginning pitcher within the Majors this season.
The trail to the Cy Younger Award is rarely simple (simply ask Wheeler, who remains to be looking for his first). However Sánchez has earned the correct to be within the dialog, and if he retains this up, he’ll be talked about in the identical breath because the favorites.
Cameron got here on late, however he is trending upward — he was simply edged out of the highest 5 in our most up-to-date ballot, at the moment combating Roman Anthony and Jasson DomÃnguez for these down-ballot votes and possibly harm considerably by the truth that of the three, he was simply the least-hyped prospect.
Along with his 2.31 ERA — he is given up two runs or fewer in 10 of 12 begins — guys are simply having a tough time hitting him. He is solely given up 48 hits in 70 innings. That is 6.19 hits per 9, which, wanting on the pool of pitchers with at the least 50 IP this 12 months, would make him barely simpler to hit than Wheeler, Carlos Rodón, Brown and Skenes — and that is it. Granted, he is issued too many walks, and that may play an element in how hittable a man is, however opponents are hitting a mixed .158 with a .204 SLG in opposition to his changeup, slider and curveball, so he is clearly been making it work.
This could genuinely be a cool achievement — Cameron is 26 years outdated, was a seventh-round select of Central Arkansas (a faculty that is produced simply 4 different large leaguers) and pitched himself into reputable prospect standing as an expert. What’s extra, since Angel Berroa received the award in 2003, no Royal has completed any larger than third in Rookie of the Yr voting, and within the years since, 11 of the opposite 14 AL golf equipment have had at the least one winner.
Pozo has had an attention-grabbing journey in baseball. He debuted within the Majors in 2021 with a 21-game stint as a member of the Rangers. Since then, he is been principally a Minor League journeyman, with stints within the Rangers, A’s and Cardinals organizations. This included a time in 2020 when he and his household had been homeless and dwelling out of his automotive. However after a four-year absence, he is again within the bigs this season with St. Louis and undoubtedly taking advantage of the chance at age 28.
By Sunday, he was hitting .302 with an .817 OPS, the latter mark rating second solely to Braves catcher Drake Baldwin (.828) amongst NL rookies with at the least 100 plate appearances. However the large caveat right here is that Pozo (101 PAs) has not performed almost as a lot as Baldwin (224 PAs) and Marlins catcher/designated hitter AgustÃn RamÃrez (315 PAs), the 2 different place gamers thought-about to be prime contenders. And that won’t change down the stretch if Pozo continues to platoon with Pedro Pagés behind the plate. He additionally would not have the flash or hype of main candidate Jacob Misiorowski, which may work in opposition to him.
But when he is capable of get at-bats and hold producing within the Majors, and if that helps the Cardinals seize a Wild Card spot, it will be a feel-good story that is arduous to disregard.
