Just Baseball’s 2026 AL and NL Awards: MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year

We’ve officially reached the end of the 2026 MLB regular season, and what a year it was. With the playoffs upon us, it’s going to be awards season before we know it.

Last year, there weren’t a whole lot of question marks with a few of the major award races, but the AL MVP race was the biggest storyline as the season wound down. Aaron Judge ultimately brought it home, but it was down to him and Cal Raleigh until the last second.

On a lesser scale, the winner of the NL Rookie of the Year was largely up in the air as well. While our staff handed the trophy to Cade Horton, Drake Baldwin won the actual award. The differences in voting between our staff and the real voters are always interesting.

Otherwise, Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal were the obvious Cy Young winners, Shohei Ohtani had the NL MVP in the bag, and Nick Kurtz was the easy choice for AL Rookie of the Year.

Last week, we conducted a poll with our staff of writers, allowing them to vote on who should win the awards in both the AL and the NL for MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year. We did the same exercise last season and it’s always fascinating to see the differing opinions, even ones on races we felt would be unanimous.

The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) handles the official voting for all major awards, with the winners announced in mid-November after the World Series comes to an end.

The BBWAA will fill out a ballot of the top 10 when they’re putting their votes together, but we did things a little bit differently. Instead of giving a long list of options, we provided the group with roughly three options and the option to write in any other players they felt fit the bill.

Let’s dive in and see how our staff voted this time around!

Just Baseball Staff Awards for 2026

AL MVP: Yordan Alvarez (72%)

After spending the vast majority of the year flirting with MLB’s first Triple Crown since 2012, Alvarez was easily the best offensive force in the AL, and it’s only right that he was the top vote-getter amongst our staff.

Alvarez, 29, was one home run shy of leading the AL (42), had the second-most RBI (106), third-most runs scored (105), and also came home fourth in the AL in walk-percentage (15.8%). Even more impressive was his MLB-leading triple-slash line, which wound up at .316/.432/.601. His 181 wRC+ also led the majors by a whopping 24 points.

The Astros were not a very good team this year, even though they snuck in the postseason (as the worst team to make it in MLB history), but Alvarez is the man responsible for bringing the team even within striking distance of such a spot.

His 6.8 fWAR was third in the majors behind two players, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Bobby Witt Jr., who are both incredible with the glove. Alvarez brought all of his WAR to the table simply with what he could do with his bat, which honestly makes his season even more impressive.

Lack of defensive value be damned, Alvarez was the best pure hitter in not just the AL, but the entire league. Shohei Ohtani has proved more than once that a strict DH can be an MVP, and I don’t think Just Baseball’s staff is going to be the only ones handing Alvarez some hardware this year.

AL MVP Runner-Up: Junior Caminero (12%)

Caminero, 23, kept up with Alvarez admirably, tying with him in home runs, and trailing by just five runs scored and RBI. He also appeared in all 162 games, which becomes even more impressive when you take into account that he made 161 of those appearances at the hot corner.

Overall, Caminero’s season was outstanding, but there wasn’t really a world where he’d be able to leapfrog Alvarez this time around.

Also receiving votes: Bobby Witt Jr. (8%), Cam Schlittler (8%)

NL MVP: Pete Crow-Armstrong (100%)

If you’re looking at our math and thinking “something’s just not adding up here…”, you would be correct. Pete Crow-Armstrong was the obvious choice for this award, and Just Baseball’s editorial staff decided to make him the unanimous winner of this year’s award.

So, the voting was held for who our staff thought would be the runner-up. Before we get to that, we can pause for a minute and give PCA his props.

No player put up more fWAR than he did this year, and it wasn’t even remotely close. Ultimately, he made it into all 162 regular-season games and posted 10.6 fWAR, which was a whopping 3.6 wins above Witt, who ended his year at 7.0. The only players to post higher WARs in a single season since 2000 are Aaron Judge (2022, 2024) and Barry Bonds (2001, 2002, 2004).

PCA led the majors in home runs (45), drove in 107 runs, and wound up with a 157 wRC+, which comfortably led the NL. His 41 stolen bases also made him the seventh player in MLB history to join the elusive 40-40 club.

His ability to hit, run, and field amongst the very best players in the game makes him a true elite talent, and that’s clearly evidenced by his 100th percentile Batting Run Value, 99th Baserunning RV, and 100th Fielding RV.

This was just an unreal season, and there wasn’t really even going to be a legitimate discussion about letting anyone else get this honor from us.

NL MVP Runner-Up: Shohei Ohtani (56%)

Ohtani once again turned in an unreal season and would’ve been in line for his fifth MVP if it weren’t for that PCA fellow. Ohtani, 32, hit 30 home runs for the sixth year in a row and turned in a 139 wRC+ across 139 games as the Dodgers’ DH this season.

He was worth 3.7 fWAR strictly as a hitter, and then made 14 starts with a sparkling 1.79 ERA and 2.61 FIP across 85.2 innings on the mound as well. That added 2.9 fWAR on to his total strictly as a pitcher.

Ohtani is one of the most talented all-around baseball players in the history of this sport, but his two-way success was simply overshadowed by PCA. Also, Ohtani wasn’t healthy all year long, which certainly played a role in his counting stats not being quite as Ohtani-like as they’ve been in the past.

Still, don’t let the injuries steer your attention away from the year Ohtani put up. His “down” year was still better than the vast majority of the league, and he’s our second-place MVP finisher because of it.

Also receiving votes: Jacob Misiorowski (24%), Elly De La Cruz (20%)

AL Cy Young: Cam Schlittler (100%)

We offered our staff the option to vote for Schlittler or four other pitchers, and not a single non-Schlittler arm received a vote.

Regardless of whether you prefer bWAR or fWAR to properly evaluate pitchers, Schlittler topped the AL in both (7.0 and 6.2, respectively). Dylan Cease gave him a run for his money, but he couldn’t quite sniff the level of pure dominance Schlittler turned in.

Schlittler, 25, led the AL in ERA (1.95) across 33 starts and 193.2 innings in what was his first full season in the majors. His 215 ERA+, which suggests his overall performance was 115% above league average, also led the AL.

The right-hander finished second in the AL in innings and quality starts, third in HR/9 and total strikeouts, fourth in K/9, fifth in BB/9, and was either first or tied for first in ERA, FIP, and SIERA.

NL Cy Young: Jacob Misiorowski (96%)

All of our voters except for one gave Misiorowski, also in his first full year in the big leagues, the nod for this one, and it’s not difficult to see why. The 6-foot-7 right-hander hits triple digits with ease and was the best pitcher in all of baseball this year.

“The Miz”, 24, led the majors in ERA (1.80), strikeouts (252), ERA+ (232), FIP (2.17), WHIP (0.80), H/9 (4.9), and K/9 (13.0) across 30 starts and just under 175 innings pitched. Along the way, he made his second All-Star Game (this time without any controversy) and was simply utterly dominant every time he took the mound.

NL Cy Young Runner-up: Chris Sale (4%)

There’s not much else to be said about Misiorowski, who is the obvious winner here. Instead of Cristopher Sanchez (who was second amongst NL pitchers in fWAR and top of the charts in bWAR) taking the runner-up spot, it’s one of just two qualifying starters 37 years or older.

Sale, who continues to defy Father Time, made 27 starts for just the second time since 2018 and was once again outstanding in his own right. The quirky left-hander finished his year with 5.5 bWAR and a 2.16 ERA alongside a 2.29 FIP in 162.2 innings of work, making his 10th All-Star Game in the process.

While Sale’s season paled in comparison to Misiorowski’s, the future Hall of Famer did lead the majors in HR/9 (0.6) while topping the NL in BB/9 (1.7) as well. He’s going to earn down votes in the actual award race too, but there’s no overtaking the Brewers’ flamethrower.

AL Rookie of the Year: Kevin McGonigle (72%)

Despite the fact that Parker Messick, who we’ll talk about shortly, put together an amazing showing this year, it’s McGonigle, who topped rookie AL position players with 5.4 fWAR.

The youngster turned in a great rookie campaign, hitting 18 home runs while driving in 72 runs and scoring 97 of his own. He also went 12-for-16 in stolen bases, nearly walked (13.1%) as often as he struck out (14.1%), and posted a 129 wRC+.

McGonigle, 22, endured two down months in May and August, but in every other month of the season he was a real thorn in pitchers’ sides. He’s not ultimately going to be a major power threat throughout his career, but the Tigers will happily take the power production they received from him this year, and it just makes him that much more of a dangerous player.

The 5-foot-9 infielder made his first All-Star Game this year and proved to be a very difficult player to get out, and that’s exactly how he’s going to make his living in this league for a long, long time.

AL ROY Runner-up: Parker Messick (24%)

Then there’s Messick, the Guardians’ left-hander who joined McGonigle at this year’s All-Star Game.

Messick, 25, put up 6.3 bWAR to McGonigle’s 7.1 (which led the entire AL), going 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA and 3.07 FIP across a full season’s worth of starts. He was easily the best rookie pitcher in the AL, but wasn’t content stopping there. On the full leaderboards, he was third in the AL league in ERA, fourth in WHIP, fifth in FIP, and eighth in both total strikeouts and SIERA.

Since 2010, only four AL pitchers have won the Rookie of the Year Award and five have took home the honors in the NL. It becomes easier for voters to hand it to position players by default thanks to the amount of total games they’re playing, but this is one that truly could’ve gone either way.

Also receiving votes: Payton Tolle (4%)

NL Rooke of the Year: Carson Benge (48%)

While our runner-up is the likely winner in the actual voting, it’s a different face taking home the hardware in our staff’s eyes.

Benge, 23, hit both righties (.780 OPS) and lefties (.766) well this season and got so much better as time went by, making him the winner in our eyes. While he took a bit to find his footing at the game’s highest level, he went on an absolute heater in the second half, hitting .310/.373/.471 with a 136 wRC+ (14th in the NL), far higher than any other rookie.

All told, the young Mets outfielder finished his first year in the big leagues with a Batting Run Value of 16, Baserunning RV of 4, and Fielding RV of 8. He established himself as one of the game’s brightest young stars, and it’s his complete profile and his do-it-all play style that helped him leapfrog the competition in our voting.

NL ROY Runner-up: Sal Stewart (24%)

Stewart, 22, did a lot right in his first full year in the majors. He played in all 162 games (one of seven players to do that this season and the only rookie to do so), hit 32 home runs with 111 RBI, and was an All-Star along the way.

Modern voters value run production and RBI above many other stats, which is why he’s the likely winner in the BBWAA’s eyes. However, his 112 wRC+ isn’t knock-your-socks-off worthy, and his 2.0 fWAR has him near Cole Young and Nick Gonzales on the leaderboards. Stewart also has some pretty legitimate swing-and-miss concerns, but that has more to do with his long-term outlook than his case to win NL ROTY.

Ultimately, we’re dealing with a far less complete player put alongside Benge. Stewart’s 13 Batting RV was lower than Benge, and he was nowhere near the baserunner or defender.

Thump and homers are cool, of course, but we’re giving the nod to the player that does everything well.

Also receiving votes: Nolan McLean (16%) JJ Wetherholt (12%)