As Spring Training is starting up and the MLB season is right around the corner, it’s time to take a look at four players who could be bringing home hardware at the end of the season. These coveted awards highlight the best of the best at the end of each season and are targets of many of these players.
NL Most Valuable Player – Shohei Ohtani
This award is one of the most obvious as to who should win it and that is Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. The best player in baseball last year took home this award last year after putting up the first 50 home run and 50 stolen base season. An achievement that may never be seen again, Ohtani has proven as to why he is one of the league’s most elite hitters. He hit .310 over the course of last year and was the national league leader in war with 9.1
Ohtani will also be returning to the mound at some point in 2025. During the winter after the 2023 season Ohtani had Tommy John surgery on his elbow which took him off the mound for the year. He has a career ERA of 3.01 and has been a consistently solid pitcher and once he returns to the mound he can be dominant. The once in a generation skill set Ohtani has has him as the clear favorite to win NL MVP.
AL Most Valuable Player – Bobby Witt Jr
This award has the chance to go to two players, Bobby Witt Jr and Aaron Judge. The two finalists for the 2024 AL MVP, Judge did win it, but this year Witt has a very solid chance to take home the 2025 award. The 24 year old put up 32 home runs and stole 31 bases last year and every odd says he is due to do that again. He only missed one game all of last year and during his three years at the major league level has never played less than 150 games, so injuries sidelining him shouldn’t be of concern. He will have big competition in Judge, but it feels inevitable that Witt will win an MVP in the near future.
NL Cy Young – Paul Skenes
The reigning NL Rookie of the Year will have his sights set on bigger and grander goals for his pitching performance this year and that is the NL Cy Young. Skenes came into the MLB with one of the most looked forwarded to debuts since Stephen Strasburg. Over 23 starts last year he dealt a 1.96 ERA with 170 strikeouts. According to Fangraphs‘ Steamer projections he is slated for an ERA of 2.80 and striking out a whopping 242 batters. There are other candidates that will give Skenes competition such as Zach Wheeler and Chris Sale, but the young right hander has a very good shot at being the best pitching in the NL.
AL Cy Young – Tarik Skubal
Tarik Skubal broke out in 2024 as one of not just the best pitchers in the AL but in the entire league. Winning the Cy Young cemented himself as an elite left handed arm. His AL league leading wins, strikeouts, and ERA led him to winning the pitching triple crown, an award that was last won by Tigers legend Justin Verlander in 2011. Shane Bieber did win in 2020, but that was a shortened season. Skubal led the Tigers in one of the most historic runs to the playoffs last year and will again lead this rotation into the 2025 season. He has less competition for the award than Skenes does, but he will need to have a close to repeat performance of his 2024 season to lock down the award.
These four awards are the most coveted in each league and only time will tell when deciding who takes home these awards.
