thelesterlee
A lot is going on in the world these days. But Major League Baseball is returning as much-needed comfort food. 162 games. It’s officially summertime. Time to make wild predictions and speculate based on nothing.
Here are the 2024 MLB Season Awards predictions:
AL Rookie of the Year: Wyatt Langford
The Texas Rangers won the World Series and are quietly adding a guy in Wyatt Langford who lowkey may turn into a generational hitter. His plate discipline has been compared to players like Mookie Betts and Ryan Zimmerman.
Wyatt Langford now has 6 spring training homers
pic.twitter.com/UW3ubrPAjG— Dallas Texas TV (@DallasTexasTV) March 20, 2024
All eyes will be on Jackson Holliday in Baltimore and perhaps he’ll end up winning based solely on lazy voters already having their minds made up before the first pitch of the season is even thrown.
But I like the structure they’ve built in Texas led by arguably the greatest manager of all time in Bruce Bochy and being in a clubhouse with professionals like Corey Seager and Marcus Semien.
- At Florida: 1.217 OPS (610 plate appearances)
- In the minors: 1.157 OPS (200 PAs)
- At spring training: 1.161 OPS (63 PAs)
Langford is the guy in the lineup that makes the opposing manager angrily march to the mound and rip the ball out of his pitcher’s hand.
AL Cy Young: Tarik Skubal
Gerrit Cole starting the season with a mysterious elbow injury isn’t ideal from both a Yankees fan standpoint and also the standpoint of a guy writing this article and trying to do the least amount of work possible. Now I have to like, actually sit down and think about this.
Corbin Burnes is the next easy pick considering he’s entering a situation where he will be treated like the Ace and savoir for the Orioles who desperately need a grown-up starting pitcher who, like everyone else on this team, also has a strange computer-generated white guy name.
But I’m going hipster on this one. Let’s just quickly run through what Tarik Skubal did in September to end his 2023 season:
- 4-0
- 0.90 ERA
- 43 Ks
The Tigers suck but every 5 days, they are unleashing a KILLER.
AL MVP: Juan Soto
I wrote a lovely little paragraph describing the incredible 2024 season Julio Rodriguez is going to have but nah, I’m not going to pretend like I don’t think Juan Soto is the best player in the American League. Sometimes, I try so hard not to be a Yankee meatrider that I ignore common sense.
I want to repeat Juan Soto is the best player in the American League and now he’s a lineup with Aaron Judge, the best power hitter, waiting behind him. But the most important detail is Soto being on the final year of his contract. He’s playing for a bag. The last Yankee who played for a bag hit the most home runs in AL history. Juan Soto is about to break every hitting record imaginable.
NL Rookie of the Year: Jackson Merrill
Coming into Spring Training, the NL Rookie of the Year award felt like it already had Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s name inscribed in it but uh, my guy got ROCKED in his first inning against Major Leaguers.
Instead, I’m putting all my eggs in the Jackson Merrill basket. Merrill was announced as the Padres starting centerfielder and by simply sitting in that stacked Padres lineup, Merrill could sneaky rack up huge numbers by just driving in guys like Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr or Merrill could score a shit ton of runs from the stars around him driving him home.
NL Cy Young: Zack Wheeler
It’s wild Zack Wheeler was at the bottom of the rotation for a New York Mets team that made the World Series with Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz only for Wheeler to be the last man standing. Actually, not even the last man standing but this man is winning a Cy Young award this season while Matt Harvey sneaks coke in the bathroom at his Madison Avenue office.
Shout out to Spencer Strider and Max Fried but I could not say any of the Braves pitchers were winning a Cy Young now that Chris Sale is in the bullpen with them, they might use up their PTO just to avoid talking to that weirdo.
NL MVP: Fernando Tatis Jr.
It’s time. Like, Fernando Tatis Jr has flirted with being the best player in baseball a couple times. Then he got busted for steroids because he doesn’t wash his hands and caught ringworm or something. Last season the vibes were atrocious in San Diego. They were flooded with talent and everyone collectively decided to have their worst seasons and lose every game.
I’m all in on the San Diego Padres bouncing back. Y’all can have the Dodgers. The Padres are about to win the NL West thanks to Fernando Tatis Jr finally taking his rightful place as MVP.
What are your 2024 MLB Season Awards predictions? Leave a comment below. Respond on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or shoot me an email at Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com. Let’s chat, bay-beeeee.
