Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor among MVP finalists
The Yankees and Mets are well represented among finalists for year-end awards.
Among eight categories for the big four Baseball Writers’ Association of America Awards — MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year in each league — four Yankees and two Mets are in the top three finishers, as revealed Monday night.
The finalists — among the top three vote-getters — for the Yankees are:
• Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, who will face off with the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. for American League MVP.
Aaron Judge is among the three finalists for the AL MVP award. SARAH YENESEL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Judge is the heavy favorite for what would be his second MVP in three seasons.
The captain led the major leagues in plenty, including his 58 home runs, 144 RBIs and a 1.159 OPS, in another impressive year that did not end with a championship but likely will end with hardware.
Witt enjoyed an all-around excellent season, his .332 average the best in baseball while stealing 31 bases, posting a .977 OPS and playing great defense at shortstop — a season that was excellent if not quite as historic as Judge’s.
Soto, whose walk-year excellence will fetch him hundreds of millions of dollars, has never won an MVP, topping out as runner-up to Bryce Harper while with the Nationals in 2021.
He has at least finished in the top three this year, receiving more votes than the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson.
• Luis Gil and Austin Wells, who join Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser as top finishers for the AL Rookie of the Year.
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Gil (3.50 ERA in 29 starts) looked like a Cy Young contender through May, when he owned a 1.99 ERA, but he tired late in his first full season after Tommy John surgery and still qualified as a revelation.
Wells (.718 OPS in 115 games, plus solid defense at catcher) looked like the disciplined bat the Yankees had seen grow through the minors, settling in as the cleanup hitter before he struggled late in the season.
Cowser (.768 OPS with 24 homers in 153 games) is a strong contender, winning a job out of camp and running with it.
The finalists for the Mets are:
• Francisco Lindor, who is a finalist for National League MVP — an award a Mets player has never won.
The odds are against Lindor, who along with Arizona’s Ketel Marte will be heavy underdogs against the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani.
Lindor has a similar argument as Witt — both offensive and defensive brilliance, finishing with an .844 OPS and consistently elite defense at shortstop — but a stat line that is dwarfed by Ohtani.
The Dodgers DH is now the only member of the 50-50 club after a campaign that ended with 54 home runs, 59 steals and a 1.036 OPS.
Franciso Lindor of the Mets is a NL MVP finalist Getty Images
• Carlos Mendoza, who is among the top three for National League Manager of the Year. All three finalists — Pat Murphy of the Brewers and Mike Shildt of the Padres are the others — are managers in their first seasons with their team.
Mendoza, in his rookie season as a major league manager, weathered many storms and brought a team that was 11 games under .500 in early June to the NLCS.
Murphy worked wonders with a tiny payroll, and Shildt steadied a powerful Padres club that had folded a year earlier.
Winners for each category will be announced next week.
