The main event of Thursday’s award revelations came with the BBWAA’s announcement that Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge repeated as MVP winners. Major League Baseball also conducted its award ceremony tonight, revealing a handful of honors that are not decided by the writers.
Most notably, the league named Jacob deGrom and Ronald Acuña Jr. the respective Comeback Players of the Year. deGrom’s comeback from Tommy John surgery technically occurred at the end of the 2024 season. The two-time Cy Young winner made three late-season appearances last year. He took the ball 30 times this past season and worked to a 2.97 earned run average with 185 strikeouts across 172 2/3 innings. He earned his fifth All-Star nod and finished eighth in AL Cy Young balloting in his age-37 season.
Acuña bounced back from the second ACL tear of his career. The 2023 NL MVP had suffered the season-ending left knee injury on May 26, 2024. He made it back almost one year to the day later. The Braves activated Acuña from the injured list on May 23. He’d return to superstar form, hitting .290/.417/.518 with 21 homers in 95 games. Acuña went back on the injured list around the trade deadline with right Achilles tightness. He only missed a couple weeks and came back to hit .268/.402/.437 down the stretch despite an injury-riddled Atlanta team being well out of contention. It’s the second straight season in which a Brave was named NL Comeback Player of the Year. Chris Sale received that honor last season.
MLB announced a few other honors. Ohtani and Judge repeated as the respective Hank Aaron Award winners as the league’s best hitters. Ohtani yet again won the Edgar Martinez Award as MLB’s best designated hitter. Aroldis Chapman and Edwin Díaz won the respective Reliever of the Year honors. Díaz is free agency’s top reliever coming off a 1.63 ERA across 62 appearances. Chapman turned in a 1.17 ERA over 61 1/3 frames in what is arguably the best season of his fantastic career. He re-signed with the Red Sox on a $13MM deal in August. The BBWAA will reintroduce its own Reliever of the Year Award in 2026.
Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold was named Executive of the Year for the second consecutive season. Milwaukee won an MLB-best 97 games and advanced to the NL Championship Series despite having an Opening Day payroll around $115MM. That was the eighth-lowest mark in the majors.
MLB also announced its 1st and 2nd teams. These are not league specific and are designed to honor the best players at each position. Those are as follows:
1st Team
- Catcher: Cal Raleigh, Mariners
- First Base: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays
- Second Base: Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks
- Third Base: José Ramírez, Guardians
- Shortstop: Bobby Witt Jr., Royals
- Outfield: Aaron Judge, Yankees
- Outfield: Julio Rodríguez, Mariners
- Outfield: Juan Soto, Mets
- Designated hitter: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers
- Starting Pitcher: Tarik Skubal, Tigers
- Starting Pitcher: Paul Skenes, Pirates
- Starting Pitcher: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers
- Starting Pitcher: Garrett Crochet, Red Sox
- Starting Pitcher: Max Fried, Yankees
- Relief Pitcher: Aroldis Chapman, Red Sox
- Relief Pitcher: Jhoan Duran, Twins/Phillies
2nd Team
- Catcher: Will Smith, Dodgers
- First Base: Nick Kurtz, Athletics
- Second Base: Brice Turang, Brewers
- Third Base: Junior Caminero, Rays
- Shortstop: Bo Bichette, Blue Jays
- Outfield: Cody Bellinger, Yankees
- Outfield: Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks
- Outfield: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs
- Designated Hitter: Kyle Schwarber, Phillies
- Starting Pitcher: Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies
- Starting Pitcher: Hunter Brown, Astros
- Starting Pitcher: Zack Wheeler, Phillies
- Starting Pitcher: Freddy Peralta, Brewers
- Starting Pitcher: Bryan Woo, Mariners
- Relief Pitcher: Edwin Díaz, Mets
- Relief Pitcher: Andrés Muñoz, Mariners
Yamamoto made the 1st team over Sánchez even after finishing 3rd in Cy Young because…
Eh, just further reason to not care about these All-MLB teams.
Yamamoto did just have the statistically fourth-best World Series performance of all time. That might have a little bit to do with it.
These awards NEVER include postseason. If they did, then it would penalize players that didn’t play in postseason. Kinda obvious.
plus these awards were determined before the postseason began
Furthermore these awards were determined before the postseason began
Same as Duran making 1st team over “NL Reliever of the year” Edwin Diaz. Make it make sense without saying opinions vary… amongst what I have to assume is the exact same voter pool for all these awards
Are these awards selected before or after postseason results are known?
Through the regular season only
Not as bad as Vlad over Kurtz. That’s crazy.
I don’t think anyone really made a big fuss about All-MLB Teams before anyway.
Unless it was an argument about “but my team’s player should’ve been [1st team]!”
…opinions vary.
Springer robbed of Comeback Award and 2nd team DH.
Schwarber had fifty more RBIs than Springer, was close but no “robbery’
It’s not really Springer’s fault he bats leadoff.
Springer didn’t miss that many games last season. The award usually goes to someone who has been injured and not just poor play the year before. The award should have gone to Trevor Story. He’s basically spent his entire Boston career on the IL before this season.
This just looks like a version of the silver slugger and not the actual best players at each position.
Not a huge fan of injury comeback players of the year…
The winners are two of the best players in baseball, both had common injuries, with standard timelines for return. Most players with these injuries return to normal levels.
Agree here
How does Springer not get comeback player of the year for the AL?
maybe because he didn’t qualify for the award
He did have a down season in 2024 but the not due to injuries or reduced playing time
Sorry. I didn’t know injuries the prior season were the criteria for comeback player of the year. I should have checked the criteria first.
Good to see some Giants on the list. Oh wait.
Other teams haven’t had their players named on here either.
The Giants aren’t the only team who isn’t listed.
They still do this award?
Lindor disrespect yet again
Whoa c’mon Logan Webb should be at least 2nd Team – he is a workhorse.
Acuna didn’t come back, he played 95 games that’s not a comeback.
I understand PCA is a good centerfielder and can run and has a little pop but he can’t get on base. .287 OBP is horrendous. He strikes out 5 times for every walk.
Acuna winning come back player and playing only
98 games is a joke.
Thought Boyd would have got it. Had a career year