New Season, New Bases, Same Awards, Same Baseball

A few months ago the MLB season ended with the Houston Astros defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series and a few months ago I wrote an article about how each team did. Now that we are going into Spring Training and the MLB season is rapidly approaching, I’m going to be making excessively early predictions for the award winners, division leaders and world series winner for the 2023 season.

AL West Winner: Houston Astros

The Astros were the World Series winner and had the best record in the MLB last season, without the Astros changing their roster too much outside of the upgrade at first base with José Abreu. The Seattle Mariners with Julio Rodriguez who is going to make big strides this season and the Los Angeles Angels with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, two of the best players in recent memory might have an argument to win the division, but they aren’t at the level that the Astros are at.

AL Central Winner: Cleveland Guardians

The Guardians won the division last season and they will stay at the top of the division for this season as the rest of the division hasn’t changed too much from last season. The Guardians have also made a couple free agent signings with catcher Mike Zunino and first baseman Josh Bell.

AL East Winner: New York Yankees

The Yanks avoided a big roadblock when they were able to re-sign 2022 AL MVP Aaron Judge and they didn’t lose much outside of Andrew Benintendi. The rest of the division hasn’t improved much either, especially the Yankees best competition, the Blue Jays, didn’t improve much and the Rays lost a couple of their assets.  

NL West Winner: San Diego Padres

The Padres will have their first full season with Juan Soto as they acquired him in the middle of last season through a trade with the Washington Nationals. Also all their young players like Soto, Ha-Seong Kim and Trent Grisham, who was crucial in their NLDS series against the Dodgers, will develop a lot. Speaking of the Dodgers they lost one of their best players, Trea Turner, in free agency, and they also lost a few other key assets in free agency. They will also be without pitchers Walker Buehler and Blake Treinen for the start of the season due to injury.

NL Central Winner: Milwaukee Brewers 

It’s going to be a very close race between the Cardinals and Brewers for the NL Central title with the Cardinals signing Wilson Contreras to fill the hole Yadier Molina left when he retired and to add to their already stacked line-up. But you also have the Brewers making aggressive trades and free agent signings over the offseason. They also have plenty of young prospects developing like Jackson Chourio and Sal Frelick. No matter what, their games with each other are very important and fun to watch. 

NL East Winner: Philadelphia Phillies

Now I get that the Phillies barely snuck into the playoffs last season, but they also were able to make it to the World Series and were the only team to win games against the playoffs all last season. They will be without their star player Bryce Harper for half of the season, but the signing of Trea Turner will fill that void in his absence. The Phils were also able to improve their pitching significantly over the off season which was their main weakness. The Braves, Mets, and possibly the Marlins will be in contention for the title, but none of them made the strides the Phillies did in the offseason.

AL MVP: Aaron Judge

Aaron Judge had such a monumental season last year it’s hard to think that he’ll get to that level again, but it’s also hard to think that he will decline much as he’s going through his prime right now. Sophomore Jack Levithan thinks that Mike Trout will win the AL MVP. He says “He’s one of the greatest players of our generation, and if he’s healthy, he’s in the conversation for MVP.” Although he thinks that Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani could be up there as well.

NL MVP: Trea Turner

Trea Turner has a big role in the Phillies offense and defense, especially with Bryce Harper injured. which will make his stats larger and better making him the National League’s MVP. Levithan thinks that Bryce Harper will win the NL MVP saying “He’s just a really good player and on a great team with the Phillies”. When asked about how Harper’s injury will affect his MVP race, Levithan said “he’ll miss some games at the start of the season, but it will get better, but it could hurt him not playing enough games”. 

AL Cy Young: Carlos Rodón

Carlos Rodón is making his Yankees debut this season after being on the Giants last year with a 2.88 ERA which is great. His ERA will be even better being added onto the Yankees, which is a better team than last year’s Giants.

NL Cy Young: Julio Urías 

Julio Urías is going to have a big role as the Dodgers ace especially without a big part of their lineup leaving in Trea Turner so he’s going to be able to stand out as the best player on the Dodgers and the best pitcher in the National League.

AL Rookie of the Year: Gunnar Henderson

Gunnar Henderson had a great season in AA and AAA, hitting 76 RBI’s and having around a .300 average. He will most likely be in the starting lineup on opening day and will be able to hold it for the rest of the season. He will be a huge part of the Orioles season.

NL Rookie of the Year: Andrew Painter

            The NL doesn’t have a lot of top prospects ready to play at the MLB level to start the year, except Andrew Painter. He is nineteen years old and is throwing 100 mph fastballs, but he might not even be starting in the Phillies rotation.

World Series Winner: San Diego Padres

The Padres will kick off their potential dynasty with a World Series win. They were able to get to the NLCS last year, but the lack of experience in such a series showed and they lost. With Soto, Kim and Grisham progressing and the rest of the team gaining that postseason experience, they’ll be back and they’ll be dangerous. Levithan thinks that the Dodgers will win the World Series even without Trea Turner on the roster. Saying that “they still have Freddie Freeman, Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw”. Making them a very likely candidate for a World Series Winner.