Pete Crow-Armstrong, Jacob Misiorowski, more named finalists for MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards

The annual BBWAA awards celebrate regular-season performances, meaning playoff results don’t matter

The annual BBWAA awards celebrate regular-season performances, meaning playoff results don Major League Baseball, in conjunction with the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), has announced the finalists for the 2026 major awards: Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Reliever of the Year and Manager of the Year. As a reminder, the voting was completed before the playoffs even started. In fact, ballots were due before the first pitch of the playoffs. That means these are regular-season awards. Further, there's no voting after finalists are announced or anything like that. The word "finalists" is kind of misleading, too. The ballots have already been tabulated and the league office is simply revealing the top three vote-getters for each award to create a buzz before the winners are announced.

Take note that the BBWAA has added a new award this season: Relief Pitcher of the Year for each league. MLB has been naming the Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year and Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year, but this is the first time the BBWAA has added an award for a relief pitcher. Yordan Alvarez, Astros: He stayed healthy for a full season and was every bit as good as we all thought he'd be. In 158 games, Alvarez had 34 doubles, 42 homers, 106