2019 MLB Awards: AL Picks

The 2019 MLB season was the year of the home run. In fact, 15 teams set franchise records for home runs. Furthermore, the Minnesota Twins broke the all-time record for most homers in a single season with 307. 

But this season, like any other year, will also be remembered for which players took home the league's most prestigious individual honors—MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year.

Here are my picks for each notable award in the American League.

MVP: Alex Bregman, Astros
There is a great case for Mike Trout to nab his third American League Most Valuable Player award. After all, the Los Angeles Angels outfielder led the AL in on-base percentage, OPS and slugging. He ranked second in homers with 45, despite missing 28 games due to injury.

Unfortunately for Trout, Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman had by far the best year of his career. Bregman finished first in the AL in the all-important Wins Above Replacement (WAR) at 8.4, just above Trout (8.3). The 25-year-old drew the most walks (119) and finished top-5 in runs, RBIs, on-base percentage, OPS and slugging. Bregman is the fifth player in AL history to reach over 40 homers, 110 and 35 doubles with less than 90 strikeouts in a seasons. The other four—Frank Thomas (1993), Ted Williams (1949), Lou Gehrig (1936) and Babe Ruth (1920, 1921 and 1924)—all won MVP in their respective season(s).

Alex Bregman spearheaded the Astros a MLB-best 107 wins. (AP Photo)

Cy Young: Gerrit Cole, Astros
Astros ace Justin Verlander, a one-time Cy Young winner, has finished runner-up for the award three times (2012, 2016 and 2018) in his legendary career. He is likely to be the runner-up again this year, despite going 21-6 with 300 strikeouts and a 2.58 ERA. Verlander achieved a career-best .803 WHIP.

The only player to outshine Verlander among AL pitchers, teammate Gerrit Cole led MLB with 326 strikeouts. Cole (20-5) set the Astros single-season record for strikeouts. Cole went 16-0 in the final 22 starts of the 2019 season with a 1.78 ERA and 226 punchouts. He had the No. 1 ERA (2.50) in the American League. Amazingly, he struck out 10 or more batters in each of his last nine starts.

Rookie of the Year: Yordan Alvarez, Astros
Yordan Alvarez played only 87 games, but he's still the odds-on favorite to win ROY. Since his June call-up, the designated hitter has posted a 1.078 OPS with 27 home runs and 78 RBIs.

In the second half of the MLB season, Alvarez wasn’t just the best rookie in the AL, he was among the best hitters in the league. He registered a tremendous slash line of .313/.412/.655. 

Chicago White Sox outfielder Eloy Jimenez also had a fine inaugural season in the majors, mashing 31 homers and slugging .513.

Manager of the Year: Aaron Boone, Yankees
New York Yankees skipper Aaron Boone led his club to 103 wins, winning the AL East with ease. They accomplished this despite setting a MLB record for most injured players in a season.

This award could go to Twins first-year manager Rocco Baldelli. The Twins rebounded from a 78-84 finish in 2018 to win 101 games this season. They seized their first AL Central division title since 2010. 

Yankees Starters Flop in First Test vs Red Sox

            The New York Yankees had their pitching rotation’s purported top-3 starters—Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and Sonny Gray—aligned for their midweek series against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

            All three fell flat on their faces versus their division rivals.

            Severino, the ace of the staff, relinquished five runs in five innings in the series opener. After posting a 1.38 ERA in his first two starts, he allowed a run to score in the first and three more in the second frame as Boston cruised to an eventual 14-1 victory.

Severino had a disappointing outing versus the Red Sox on Tuesday. (Michael Dwyer/AP)

            Aaron Boone, the rookie manager, even suggested the 24-year-old Severino may have been tipping his pitches.

             "We've addressed certain things in the past," Boone told The New York Post. "We've noticed things from time to time. We're always as vigilant as we can be with what he may or may not be doing."

            Although the Yankees won the next game—a contest highlighted by the brawl sparked by Boston’s reliever Joe Kelly and New York’s Tyler Austin—Tanaka was far from sharp on the mound. After the offense gifted him an 8-1 lead, Tanaka let the Red Sox back in striking distance after surrendering a grand slam to Red Sox newcomer J.D. Martinez in a five-run fifth inning. Tanaka managed to get the win, despite giving up six runs in five innings, but the Yankees couldn’t have been encouraged by his performance.

            Gray had the worst showing of the three. He gave up six runs and only lasted three innings, forcing the bullpen into a heavy duty day of work. The relievers registered five scoreless innings, but Gray dug the Yankees too big of a hole to recover as a late rally in the ninth fell short in a 6-3 defeat.

Gray struggled at a rainy Fenway Park on Thursday night. (Winslow Townson/AP)

            Boone recognized Gray’s struggles and noted how the right-hander will be a determining factor in the Yankees success this season.

            “It’s frustrating because he’s really important for us and we know what he’s capable of,” Boone said. “He’s coming off an outing where he gave us six strong innings and we feel like it will turn around for him, but tonight wasn’t the night.”

            The rotation was not expected to be the strong suit of the Yankees. The strengths of this team lie in the power hitting of the middle of the lineup and its top-notch bullpen. But the Yankees’ rotation can’t be this weak of a link if they are truly to contend for a championship.

          The starters have to perform better than this, especially against a Red Sox club that figures to be the Yankees’ biggest competition in the American League East.

Red Sox Manager John Farrell: 'Hard to Have Faith' in Replay

John Farrell became the first manager to get ejected for arguing a replay decision after getting tossed by first base umpire Bob Davidson in the fourth-inning of Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Yankees. (Adam Hunger/ USA Today Sports)

MLB’s newly instituted replay system was expected to have some growing pains in its inaugural season in 2014. However, the system has done more harm than good early on, providing the league with more headaches for disputed calls than ever before.

The Boston Red Sox have been victimized by the replay system in each of their past two games, both losses against the archrival New York Yankees.

In Saturday’s contest, Red Sox manager John Farrell asked umpires to review a call at second base, where the Yankees’ Dean Anna was ruled safe on a play that replay showed he was undoubtedly out. The call stood after video review, though. After the game, MLB admitted the call should have been overturned.

On Sunday night, Farrell was ejected after arguing a call in the fourth inning that was reviewed on replay after umpires reversed their original ruling on what would have been an inning-ending double play.

Initially, Yankees' Francisco Cervelli was properly called out at first after he grounded to Red Sox third baseman Ryan Roberts, who threw to second to force out Kelly Johnson, before Red Sox second baseman Jonathan Herrera fired it over to first baseman Mike Napoli in what should have ended the inning.

"On the heels of yesterday and today, this is a tough pill to swallow,” Farrell told MLB.com’s Ian Browne. “It's extremely difficult to have any faith in the system, the process that's being used."

The reversal gave the Yankees a run on a call that was clearly correct before the umpires reviewed and wrongly overturned it. This run proved to be the difference for the Yankees in a 3-2 victory. Lacking conclusive evidence even after review, Farrell was justly furious after the call was upturned.

"We felt that it was clear that the replay was inconclusive," Farrell said, via Jason Mastrodonato of MassLive.com. "The frustrating part is when this was rolled out and explained to us, particularly on the throw received by the first baseman, we were instructed that when the ball enters the glove, not that it has to hit the back of the glove, is where the out is deemed complete.”

"At the same time, any angle that we looked at, you couldn't tell if the foot was on the bag behind Mike Napoli's leg. Where this became conclusive is a hard pill to swallow."

Former manager and current MLB executive Tony La Russa implores Farrell to give the new system time to fix its initial bugs.

"One thing I'd say to John -- and I'd love to talk to him because I have great respect for him -- is that, in fairness to the process, we need to keep working at it," said La Russa, via Jayson Stark of ESPN.com. "I don't know what the period of time is, whether it's a month or six weeks or whatever it is, but we all have learned from what we've seen.”