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Major League Baseball, in conjunction with the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), has announced the finalists for the 2026 major awards: Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Reliever of the Year and Manager of the Year.
As a reminder, the voting was completed before the playoffs even started. In fact, ballots were due before the first pitch of the playoffs. That means these are regular-season awards. Further, there's no voting after finalists are announced or anything like that. The word "finalists" is kind of misleading, too. The ballots have already been tabulated and the league office is simply revealing the top three vote-getters for each award to create a buzz before the winners are announced.
Take note that the BBWAA has added a new award this season: Relief Pitcher of the Year for each league. MLB has been naming the Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year and Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year, but this is the first time the BBWAA has added an award for a relief pitcher.
The announcement schedule is as follows.
Monday, Nov. 9: Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards
Tuesday, Nov. 10: Manager of the Year Awards
Wednesday, Nov. 11: Cy Young Awards
Wednesday, Nov. 11: Relief Pitcher of the Year Awards
Thursday, Nov. 12: Most Valuable Player Awards
Onto the finalists.
Yordan Alvarez, Astros: He stayed healthy for a full season and was every bit as good as we all thought he'd be. In 158 games, Alvarez had 34 doubles, 42 homers, 106 RBI, 105 runs and led the majors in all three slashes: .316/.432/.601 (190 OPS+). He also led the majors in walks and intentional walks.
Junior Caminero, Rays: At age 22, he played all 162 games, leading the Rays to the best AL record. He hit .276/.360/.524 (144 OPS+) with 42 home runs, 101 RBI and 100 runs, posting a 5.7 WAR. He's already made history, too, as the Rays had previously never had a player finish in the top five of MVP voting.
Bobby Witt Jr., Royals: This is now Witt's fourth straight season in the top seven and third straight season in the top four. He finished second in 2024. This season, he hit .281/.359/.441 (125 OPS+) with 33 doubles, 18 homers, 54 RBI, 94 runs, 45 steals and 6.7 WAR.
Dylan Cease, Blue Jays: In his first season after signing a big deal with the Jays, Cease was one of the few bright spots for the disappointing ballclub. He went 11-6 with a 2.40 ERA (184 ERA+), 1.10 WHIP and 239 strikeouts in 169 innings, finishing with 5.5 WAR. He was the All-Star Game starter.
Parker Messick, Guardians: In 32 starts, Messick was 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 193 strikeouts in 186 ⅓ innings, helping the Guardians win the AL Central for the third straight season. Fun fact: Eight pitchers in history have won the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young. Fernando Valenzuela in 1981 is the only one to win both in the same year.
Cam Schlittler, Yankees: Fresh off a great half season and playoffs in 2025, Schlittler just kept impressing. In his age-25 season, he was 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and 239 strikeouts in 193 ⅔ innings, holding the Yankees rotation together despite several key injuries. He led the AL in WAR and ERA.
Kevin McGonigle, Tigers: A first-round pick out of high school in 2023, McGonigle made the Tigers out of spring training and took the league by storm. He returned home to Philadelphia for the All-Star Game and finished with an AL-best 7.1 WAR. In 707 plate appearances, he hit .278/.376/.420 (126 OPS+) with 28 doubles, five triples, 18 home runs, 72 RBI, 97 runs and 12 steals, all the while playing good defense at both shortstop and third base.
Parker Messick, Guardians: The southpaw got his feet wet in 2025, but the workload was low enough that he maintained rookie status for 2026, during which he excelled. In 32 starts, Messick was 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 193 strikeouts in 186 ⅓ innings, helping the Guardians win the AL Central for the third straight season.
Payton Tolle, Red Sox: The 6-foot-6 lefty was a second-round pick in 2024 and debuted last season, though he didn't even work 20 innings and struggled. This time around, he was ready. In 26 starts, he was 9-6 with a 3.03 ERA (135 ERA+), 1.10 WHIP and 171 strikeouts in 148 2/3 innings.
Bryan Baker, Rays: After dabbling in relative obscurity for parts of five seasons, Baker broke out at age 31 this year. He led the majors with 41 saves while pitching to a 1.44 ERA and 0.91 WHIP with 63 strikeouts in his 62 ⅓ innings for the best team in the AL.
Cade Smith, Guardians: Tied with Baker for the MLB lead in saves with 41, Smith was nails in his first full season as closer. He had a 1.95 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 107 strikeouts in 74 innings for a playoff team.
Louis Varland, Blue Jays: In his fifth MLB season, Varland really found something and finished with a 1.27 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 97 strikeouts in 78 innings. By late April, he was the Jays' closer, finishing 35 of 37 save chances.
Kevin Cash, Rays: The Rays missed the playoffs in 2024 and 2025 and returned to the Trop after hurricane damage left them without a home in '25. They went out and won 98 games and took one of the toughest divisions in baseball, finishing as the best team in the AL.
Chad Tracy, Red Sox: Tracy took over as manager after the Red Sox got off to a 10-17 start. He went 77-58, making the playoffs. The turnaround featured an absurd stretch during which the Red Sox won 32 of 37 games.
Will Venable, White Sox: Venable became a first-time manager for the 2025 season, taking over a team that lost a modern MLB-record 121 games the previous year. They lost 102 in 2025, but this season improved by 24 games and made the playoffs. This wasn't based much on huge free agency additions or trades for a lot of outside help. It was mostly internal improvement.
Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs: We'd seen flashes of the upside before, but PCA put everything together in 2026. He finished a .280/.372/.570 (156 OPS+) hitter with 31 doubles, five triples, 45 home runs, 107 RBI, 119 runs and 9.8 WAR. He led the majors in WAR, runs, home runs and led the NL in slugging percentage, OPS and OPS+. He became the seventh player ever to join the 40-40 club, too.
Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers: The four-time MVP looked like he was going to win a fifth for the first half of the season, but injuries caught up to him late. Still, at the plate, Ohtani hit .275/.377/.512 with 26 doubles, four triples, 30 home runs, 81 RBI, 89 runs, 11 steals and 3.2 WAR. On the mound, he was 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 95 strikeouts in 85 ⅔ innings with 3.2 WAR.
Brice Turang, Brewers: Nationally underrated, Turang still hasn't made an All-Star Game, though he did start 2026 as a member of Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. In the regular season, Turang hit .268/.366/.450 (124 OPS+) with 37 doubles, three triples, 21 home runs, 100 RBI, 102 runs and 7.3 WAR, rating out as one of the best defenders in baseball.
Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers: There was upside to dream on here entering the season and it became a dream season. In 30 starts, Miz posted a 1.80 ERA, 0.80 WHIP and 252 strikeouts in 174 ⅔ innings. He went 16-5 for the team with the best record in baseball and led the majors in ERA, WHIP and strikeouts, among other things.
Chris Sale, Braves: The spindly left-hander won his first Cy Young at age 35 in 2024. He was only able to make 27 starts this season, but he was better in a few rate stats. Overall, he was 14-9 with a 2.16 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 200 strikeouts against only 31 walks in 162 ⅔ innings.
Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies: Early in the season, Sánchez moved to the front of the line after a scoreless streak of 50 ⅔ innings. At midseason, he started the All-Star Game in Philly. He finished the season 18-7 with a 2.91 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and 231 strikeouts in 207 innings. He led the majors in pitcher WAR at 8.1.
Carson Benge, Mets: The 2024 first-rounder made the team out of spring training and hit .282/.346/.430 with 20 home runs, 22 steals and 4.3 WAR.
Sal Stewart, Reds: It's a fight of Old School vs. New School. Stewart only posted 1.8 WAR, but he had 32 home runs and 111 RBI, putting him in rarefied air for a rookie. He's one of just 15 rookies ever with at least 30 homers and 100 RBI. The last eight players to do so won Rookie of the Year. The only ones who didn't win came before there was an award or someone else did it in the same season (two rookies in 1950 got to 30-100).
JJ Wetherholt, Cardinals: Defensive metrics love Wetherholt and help push him to 4.5 WAR in 139 games. He hit .242/.339/.365 with 17 homers, 14 steals and 89 runs.
Jhoan Duran, Phillies: In his first full season with the Phillies, Duran closed down 33 of his 35 save chances with a 1.82 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 84 strikeouts in 59 ⅓ innings.
Mason Miller, Padres: In 70 innings across 66 appearances, Miller pitched to a 1.67 ERA, 0.90 WHIP and struck out 129 hitters. He won five games and converted 38 of his 41 save chances.
Trevor Megill, Brewers: Though the Brewers didn't always employ a traditional closer, Megill was the closest thing to it, securing 30 saves in 33 chances with a 2.63 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 69 strikeouts in 61 2/3 innings.
Don Mattingly, Phillies: Mattingly started the season as the bench coach before taking over a 9-19 team for the fired Rob Thomson. Immediately, the Phillies got hot. They ended up going 79-55 under Mattingly, making the playoffs yet again despite starting 10 games under .500.
Pat Murphy, Brewers: Managers almost never win this award in back-to-back seasons because it's generally given to the guy whose team most exceeded expectations. How could that possibly happen two straight years? Well, Murphy now is going for three. In 2025, the Brewers set a franchise record with 97 wins and had the best record in baseball. In 2026, they set a franchise record with 103 wins and had the best record in baseball.
Walt Weiss, Braves: In 2025, the final season of Brian Snitker's career, the Braves were a disappointing 76-86. Weiss was hired in the offseason and went 94-68, getting the Braves back on top in the NL East after a two-year hiatus.
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