TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On Jan. 10, 2024, two days after backup quarterback Ty Simpson decided to remain at Alabama rather than transfer, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban announced his retirement, ending his remarkable 17-year run at the school that included six national championships.

Even though Saban was no longer in charge, he still found time to give Simpson one more ass chewing while he was cleaning out his office.

Many times during the previous two seasons, when Simpson was stuck behind starters Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe, Saban warned him about being too focused on the outcome and what others were doing rather than trying to improve.

“To be honest with you, it kind of pissed me off because I didn’t think it made any sense,” Simpson said. “I thought he just wanted me out of his office.”

That was Saban’s departing message to Simpson as well.

“He was brutally honest,” Simpson said. “He was like, ‘You’re such a good kid. I’m a huge fan and love you, but you have to take that next step. You can’t be doing this.'”

Simpson’s meteoric rise from being a player who couldn’t get on the field to having the third-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy and being a potential top-5 pick in the 2026 NFL draft wasn’t easy.

After a stunning season-opening slip against Florida State, the No. 4 Crimson Tide (8-1, 6-0 SEC) have won eight games in a row heading into Saturday’s SEC showdown against No. 12 Oklahoma (7-2, 3-2) at Bryant-Denny Stadium (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

“I think that if we don’t lose that first game, we wouldn’t be where we are, to be honest with you,” Simpson said. “I think the first game made us self-reflect and made us understand, like, ‘All right, what are we going to do now?'”

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WHEN ALABAMA SIGNED Simpson, it was widely believed in the program that he would eventually replace Young, who was chosen by the Carolina Panthers with the No. 1 pick of the 2023 NFL draft.

Simpson had the talent and background: He was the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the Class of 2022 in ESPN’s recruiting rankings. He was the Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year after throwing for 2,827 yards with 41 touchdowns while leading Westview High to a Class 2A state championship as a senior. And Simpson had been around the sport his entire life. His father, Jason, is in his 20th season as head coach at FCS program Tennessee-Martin.

During his first two seasons at Alabama, however, Simpson couldn’t get out of his own way. After redshirting as a freshman, he couldn’t beat out Milroe for the starting QB job and attempted just 20 passes in six games in Saban’s final season in 2023.

According to Saban, Simpson couldn’t overtake Milroe because he spent too much time beating himself up.

“He was wound so tight and was always looking at how well he did compared to how well somebody else did,” said Saban, who now works as an analyst for ESPN. “It was almost like a guy in competition to see who sells the most cars. They’re scurrying around worrying about what the other guys are doing, not totally focused on what they’re doing. If he made a bad play, he’d get totally frustrated about it and make another bad play.”

After the Crimson Tide hired Washington’s Kalen DeBoer two days after Saban’s sudden retirement, Simpson’s first encounter with his new coach didn’t go well, either. It was little more than a brief handshake, as Simpson remembers it.

“I just introduced myself, and he kind of blew me off,” Simpson said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, we’ll meet everybody later.'”

As Simpson watched DeBoer spend time with Milroe, he wondered if it was still the right decision to remain at Alabama. When Washington quarterback Austin Mack announced he was transferring to join his coach, Simpson requested a meeting with DeBoer to figure out where he stood with the new staff.

At the time, Alabama’s quarterback room also included Julian Sayin, the No. 2 dual-threat passer in the Class of 2024. Sayin transferred to Ohio State nine days after DeBoer was hired.

“I asked for a meeting with him because I was contemplating whether I was wanted here,” Simpson said. “They were bringing Austin in. I knew Jalen was the starter. I just didn’t know my place.”

Behind the scenes, the wheels were already in motion to find Simpson a new team if he wasn’t wanted in Tuscaloosa. His mother, Julie, happened to be in town helping him move when Saban announced he was stepping down. She stayed for about a week to help her son figure out his future.

Following Simpson’s awkward introduction to DeBoer, his family started exploring options. Simpson’s parents told him not to attend the first two days of classes in case he wanted to transfer. It was decided that if Simpson had to leave Alabama, he would transfer to SEC rival Georgia. His mother was already searching for a place for him to live in Athens.

Jason Simpson reached out to Alabama co-offensive coordinators Nick Sheridan and Ryan Grubb (who would leave the following month to be the offensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks) and had good conversations with them. But there were no assurances that Ty would play the next season, as the returning Milroe had led the Crimson Tide to a 12-2 record and a College Football Playoff appearance.

“The timing was so fast,” Jason Simpson said. “As his dad, I couldn’t tell him what was the right thing to do.”

In the end, Ty’s concerns were put to rest after his meeting with DeBoer, who had just guided Washington to an undefeated regular season. The Huskies, led by quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and a high-flying offense, lost to Michigan 34-13 in the CFP National Championship.

Plus, if Simpson had transferred to Georgia, he probably would have sat behind returning starter Carson Beck. If he was going to be a backup again, Ty figured he might as well do it at a familiar place with teammates he loved.

“He was so prayerful about going to Alabama and knew that was where the Lord was leading him,” Julie Simpson said. “He was like, ‘I know this is where he wanted me to be, so I’m not leaving. I’m going to stick it out and see what this will do.'”

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JULIE SIMPSON KNEW from an early age that her son was more driven than most kids. When Ty was 4, she signed him up for soccer to help burn off his energy. In the first few practices, he peppered his coach about the game’s rules and what he was supposed to do.

When Ty started collecting sports cards, it became an obsession. She drove him all over town looking for packs.

Simpson’s parents made him wait a year after he was eligible to sign up for tackle football, but he was all-in once he started playing. Since Jason was busy coaching UT Martin’s team, Julie videotaped Ty’s practices and games. She would drop the camera off at Jason’s office and a staff member would download the tape.

Jason and Ty reviewed the practices and games together, with his dad offering suggestions on how to improve his mechanics, pointing out receivers he missed and teaching him how to adjust his offensive linemen.

Ty was in fourth grade.

“He would go back to his practices and he would literally tell his teammates and his friends and they’d talk about it in school,” Julie said. “Thankfully, he had some sweet coaches. They’d ask Ty about what his dad said, and he would tell them. That’s kind of where he started really becoming obsessed with football even more than he already was.”

After UT Martin’s games, Julie analyzed the stat sheet during her husband’s news conferences. When Ty was old enough to understand stats, she made sure he had a box score, too. At Alabama, Ty still carries one to postgame interviews and critiques what the offense did and didn’t do well.

“I laugh because as many Coach Saban-isms as he has — and you can get a lot in 2½ years — if you listen to his dad in any of his press conferences, Ty sounds just like him,” Julie said.

Growing up in Tennessee, Ty loved to hunt ducks. He started making his own duck calls — and that became an obsession, too, as he worked to get them just right. Julie had to wear headphones in their house because he blew the calls so often.

One day in high school, Ty called his mother and told her that another driver had rear-ended his truck. He was OK and said the wreck wasn’t bad. When Julie arrived at the scene, she realized it was much worse than Ty described. The other car was totaled, and his truck was badly damaged. Other drivers told her the collision sounded like a train wreck.

“I was blowing my duck calls,” Ty told her. “I didn’t hear it.”

In his first three seasons at Alabama, Ty’s drive for perfection ended up holding him back. As a coach’s son, he was more familiar with X’s and O’s than most players. He had been drawing defenses and route trees on a whiteboard with UT Martin’s coaches since he was about 10.

Through high school, Ty was tutored by young assistants who ended up becoming some of the brightest offensive minds in the game: Georgia Tech offensive line coach Geep Wade, Panthers quarterbacks coach Will Harriger, Nebraska offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield and Bengals pass game coordinator Justin Rascati, among others.

Ty had such an intricate knowledge of the game by the time he reached college that Jason Simpson urged his son to rely on his instincts.

“He is a perfectionist when it comes to throwing and he’s very infatuated with the footwork and the finish and how the ball is supposed to spin correctly and stuff,” Jason said. “Now I think he’s kind of learned to just complete the pass, man, and move on. We’ll fix that in the offseason.”

Ty’s frustration over his lack of playing time early on at Alabama boiled over when he made the incorrect read on a goal-line play during a spring scrimmage in 2023. Then-offensive coordinator Tommy Rees jumped on him, and Jason Simpson sensed his son was still struggling during the drive home. The incident left Ty in tears and questioning whether he would ever get a chance to play at Alabama.

“Man, where are you with your faith?” Jason Simpson asked his son. “Because you shouldn’t be having that kind of anxiety. You’ve got to be able to let it go. You can’t just sit there and replay every play all the time in your head when you make a mistake.”

Saban described the start of Ty’s college career as a “cycle of negative spiraling.”

“He was just focusing on all the wrong stuff,” Saban said. “He’s a great kid — you’re not going to find a better kid. But sometimes the great kids are wired and driven to perfection, which can be a curse or a blessing depending on how you apply it to yourself.”

Jason knew that every time Ty came home, he was peppered with questions about whether he was ever going to play or be Alabama’s starter.

“That gets on anybody,” Jason said. “I just think over a period of time, he learned how to handle that better. His faith played a big part in lifting that off of him, realizing that he has a lot of blessings and he’s not only identified if he’s the starting quarterback at Alabama.”

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LAST SEASON, AS Alabama struggled throughout a 9-4 season, Ty again played sparingly, attempting 25 passes in six games.

In practices, though, Ty proved to DeBoer and his assistants that he was ready to take the reins. Once Milroe declared for the NFL draft, Ty was left to battle Mack and highly regarded freshman Keelon Russell for the starting job this offseason.

Importantly, Ty was no longer battling himself.

“One day, it just kind of clicked,” he said. “I figured out I need to worry about myself and kind of just play. I understood what [Saban] meant about being outcome-oriented. I quit worrying about what will so-and-so think about me or what will Coach Saban say about me.”

Finally, in Alabama’s opener at Florida State on Aug. 30, Simpson took the field as the starter. His debut was a disaster, as he completed 23 of 43 passes for 254 yards with two touchdowns in the Tide’s stunning 31-17 loss. He was sacked three times, as the Tide had no answers against a team that finished 2-10 in 2024.

While DeBoer might have been public enemy No. 1 on Alabama sports radio and fan message boards, Simpson was a close runner-up. His father even received an email from a disgruntled fan who called his son the “worst quarterback in Alabama history.”

“It was pretty dark, I’m going to be honest with you,” Ty said. “Just because of all the hard work, all the waiting, and the buildup. I’d been waiting so long for this. I finally got my chance in a crazy environment with a good team. It was all that I asked for, right? And it all just crumbled in my hands.”

Julie and Jason sensed that Ty was struggling, so she drove to Tuscaloosa and spent the week with him. She brought along his goldendoodle, Rip, who is named after the ranch hand in the TV show, “Yellowstone.” She cooked his favorite foods, such as lasagna and chocolate chip cookies, and gave him “unconditional love.”

Jason gave him an honest assessment. When Ty asked his dad how he played against the Seminoles, his dad told him, “Well, you know, you didn’t play great. With the way y’all’s offense is built, whoever plays quarterback in that system has to play at a high level.”

DeBoer and Grubb, who returned to Bama this season, told Ty the same thing: He had to play better for the Tide’s offense to work. DeBoer opened the quarterback competition the next week in practice, giving Mack some snaps with the No. 1 offense.

Instead of wallowing in his mistakes as he might have in the past, Simpson practiced with a chip on his shoulder and went to work.

“It probably blindsided him for a second, but he responded in a great way all week long and produced exceptionally well on that Saturday,” DeBoer said. “It was what we needed him to do. I’m really proud of him because it can go one of two ways: Guys can kind of be like, ‘Whoa, they just don’t believe in me.’ You can feel sorry for yourself, or you can bow up and go compete and go get better.”

In Alabama’s 73-0 rout of Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 6, Simpson completed each of his 17 pass attempts for 226 yards and three touchdowns.

Three weeks later, he threw for 276 yards with three touchdowns (one running) in a 24-21 win at then-No. 5 Georgia, ending the Bulldogs’ 33-game home winning streak.

“He had the ability and the talent,” Saban said. “He got all tangled up in himself psychologically to where he couldn’t function very well. He’s learned how to not do that. I think he learned and listened, and he wanted to be good. He’s really good at self-assessing, but now he self-assesses in a positive way, not in a way that frustrates him.”

When Simpson looks at a stat sheet now, he’s still critical. If the Crimson Tide held the ball for 38 minutes and scored 27 points, he’ll note they probably left a couple of touchdowns on the field. If he was sacked four times, he recognizes he probably should have gotten the ball out sooner.

But he’ll also pat himself on the back for completing a pass to tailback Jam Miller on a fourth-down rollout, or for checking down on a pass to Germie Bernard when a defender was in his face.

Through nine games, Simpson has completed 66.9% of his attempts for 2,461 yards with 21 touchdowns and one interception.

“You knew he was capable,” DeBoer said. “Everyone’s confident in him. As he continues to step up and be vocal, it’s genuine. Because he works hard, the team really responds and takes it in a positive way when he’s critical of himself and critical of us as an offense or as a team.”

There’s been a pair of goals written on the Simpsons’ family calendar this fall. Ty’s younger brother, Graham, followed him as the starting quarterback at Westview High. Last season, he threw for 4,135 yards with 57 touchdowns and one interception. He had a state-record 620 yards with eight touchdowns in one game.

Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miami and Vanderbilt are among the programs that have already offered Graham, who is in the Class of 2028, a scholarship.

This season, the Chargers are 10-0 and among the favorites to win the Class 3A state title. The state championship game will be played at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, the day before the SEC championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The Simpsons would like nothing more than to play a doubleheader on the first weekend of December.

The hot stove season is already burning, but even amid the roster shuffling for the 2026 season, we have one last bit of 2025 business: handing out the major awards.

The most prestigious are the four major honors determined by BBWAA voting. These awards will have a lasting impact on baseball history books and Hall of Fame résumés.

On Monday, Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz was unanimously selected as the American League Rookie of the Year, and Atlanta Braves rookie catcher Drake Baldwin earned the National League honor.

Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy and Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt each won their second consecutive Manager of the Year award on Tuesday.

Here is the remaining schedule (awards are announced starting at 7 ET each night on MLB Network):

Wednesday: Cy Young Awards
Thursday: MVP Awards

MLB will also hold its annual awards show in Las Vegas on Thursday, during which it will recognize its All-MLB squads, the Hank Aaron Awards for each league’s best offensive performer, the Comeback Player of the Year Awards, the Mariano Rivera/Trevor Hoffman Awards for the top relievers, and the Edgar Martinez Awards for best designated hitters. The Executive of the Year Award will also be announced.

I’ll be reacting to each night’s awards announcement throughout the week, but in the meantime, here are some opening comments and some brief reaction to the honors that have been awarded.

Below, we list the three finalists in each of the remaining categories, with what you need to know before the results are announced and my picks to take home the hardware. We’ll update each section with news and analysis as the winners are revealed.

Jump to:
MVP: AL | NL
Cy Young: AL | NL
Rookie of the Year: AL | NL
Manager of the Year: AL | NL

American League Cy Young

Finalists:

Hunter Brown, Houston Astros
Garrett Crochet, Boston Red Sox
Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers

My pick: Skubal

Skubal is well positioned to become the AL’s first repeat Cy Young winner since Pedro Martinez in 2000. He might just be getting started. The dominant lefty didn’t repeat as a pitching Triple Crown winner, but he posted a lower ERA (2.21 to 2.39) and struck out more batters (241 to 228) than he did while winning the Cy Young Award in 2024. For the second straight year, he led the AL in pitching bWAR, FIP and ERA+.

That’s a tough résumé for Crochet to top, but he came pretty close, leading the AL in innings (205⅓) and strikeouts (255) and beating Skubal in wins (18 to 13). Skubal was a little more consistent in terms of average game score (64.2 to 62.6). Skubal really didn’t rout Crochet in any key area, but he beat him just the same in most columns.

Brown is a worthy No. 3, but for him, it’s the same story: He hung with the big two in most areas but didn’t top them. Still, it was another season of improvement for Brown, whose ERA over the past three seasons has gone from 5.09 to 3.49 to 2.43.

Cy Young must-reads:

The extraordinary mystery of the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal

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National League Cy Young

Finalists:

Cristopher Sanchez, Philadelphia Phillies
Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers

My pick: Sanchez

My AXE system wasn’t particularly emphatic about the No. 3 pitcher in the NL Cy Young column, so Yamamoto is as good a pick there as any. We start with him because his dominant postseason run is fresh in our minds. But that doesn’t factor in here. Maybe it should, but it doesn’t. In any event, I’d have gone with Milwaukee’s Freddy Peralta as my No. 3.

Regardless of the third finalist, during the regular season, Skenes and Sanchez gradually separated themselves from the pack, especially after Sanchez’s teammate Zack Wheeler was injured. They are the easy top two but picking between them isn’t that easy.

Sanchez has the edge in volume — 202 innings to 187⅔, in part because the Pirates eased up on Skenes toward the end. Indeed, failure to do so would have been malpractice. Despite that, Skenes struck out more batters (216 to 212), posted a better ERA (1.97 to 2.50) and led the league in ERA+, WHIP and FIP. The extra 14⅓ innings allowed Sanchez a narrow win in bWAR (8.0 to 7.7).

In the end, their runs saved against average is a virtual dead heat: 53 for Sanchez against 52 for Skenes. Thus for me it comes down to context. Sanchez put up his season for a division champ, Skenes for a cellar dweller. That is not Skenes’ fault, but we’ve got to separate these pitchers somehow. Sanchez’s season was worth 3.2% championship probability added against Skenes’ 0.5%. That’s the clincher for me.

But I think Skenes will win the vote.

Cy Young must-reads:

How young aces Skenes, Skubal dominate

American League MVP

Finalists:

Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners
Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians

My pick: Raleigh

What to know: We’re going to dive deep into the riveting race between Judge and Raleigh later this week. According to my AXE rating, which is an index that expresses the consensus of the leading bottom-line metrics, the winner is Judge (164 to 150) and it’s not particularly close.

Despite the easy statistical case for Judge, I see this as a case in which the narrative and intangible elements overwhelm the metrics. And that’s not to undersell Raleigh’s metrics, which are more than MVP-worthy. But despite another historic season from Judge, I’m going with Raleigh.

Again, we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of the numbers later, but the soft factors that swing my thinking are these: Raleigh’s 60-homer season is the stuff of science fiction when viewed through the lens of what’s expected from every-day catchers. It not only shattered the single-season mark for the position, but it broke Mickey Mantle’s record for homers by a switch-hitter. Mickey freaking Mantle. And Raleigh’s a (darn good) catcher!

Raleigh did all of this as the defensive anchor and clubhouse leader on a division champion. There aren’t many seasons when I’d pick someone as MVP over the 2025 version of Aaron Judge, but this is one of them. Sure, I’m a stat guy, so this feels like a departure from that foundation, but sometimes a narrative is just too compelling to ignore.

Finally, poor Jose Ramirez. This is Ramirez’s sixth time landing in the AL’s top five in MVP balloting, and eighth time in the top 10. But he’s not going to win. Ramirez just keeps churning out the same great season every year. It’s just that there has always been someone a little greater each season.

That being said: Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. should have been the third finalist. He’ll be back.

MVP must-reads:

What it’s really like facing Aaron Judge

Can Yankees build a title-winning team around Aaron Judge?

‘It’s something that’s never been done’: Inside Cal Raleigh’s road to HR history

Why the Mariners are built to last after a crushing ALCS loss

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National League MVP

Finalists:

Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers
Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies
Juan Soto, New York Mets

My pick: Ohtani

What to know: Together, the three NL MVP finalists logged 63% of their starts at designated hitter. Most of the non-DH starts came from Soto, whose defensive metrics continue to suggest a future of increased DH time. Still, the days of DHs being locked out of the MVP chase are clearly over.

Ohtani was the first exclusive DH to win an MVP last year, though he’d won it before while serving as an every-day DH in addition to pitching. He logged 1.1 bWAR this season for his 47 innings on the mound, which could have proved to be a tiebreaker if he and the other finalists were close. But it’s Ohtani all the way.

As hitters, all three used up a similar number of outs as Ohtani, who had at least a 20-run advantage in runs created over both. Shockingly, it was Soto who had the best baserunning numbers, thanks to his 38-steal breakout and Ohtani deemphasizing that part of his game. But Ohtani provided easily the most defensive value with his pitching, while Soto’s defense was a negative and Schwarber was almost exclusively a DH.

Basically, everything Schwarber and Soto did, Ohtani did better — and he pitched well. Even Schwarber’s league-leading RBI count (132) is trumped by Ohtani’s decided edge in WPA, a category in which he led the league. It’s Ohtani’s award, again, and it will be No. 4 for him. Only Barry Bonds has won more.

Not for nothing, you know which position player posted the highest bWAR total? That would be a nonfinalist: Arizona’s Geraldo Perdomo (7.0 bWAR), though he did finish behind Ohtani when the latter’s pitching bWAR is added.

MVP must-reads:

2025 MLB most exciting player bracket: Ohtani, Judge, more

The improbability of Shohei Ohtani’s greatness

Schwarber, All-Star swing-off captures the beauty of baseball

Inside Juan Soto’s wild first Mets season

Juan Soto, the showman, finally showing up for Mets

‘He turned his back on us’: What it was like watching Soto’s Bronx return with the Bleacher Creatures

American League Rookie of the Year

Winner: Nick Kurtz, Athletics (unanimous)

Final tally: Nick Kurtz 210 (30 first-place votes), Jacob Wilson 107, Roman Anthony 72, Noah Cameron 54, Colson Montgomery 23, Carlos Narvaez 21, Jack Leiter 6, Will Warren 5, Luke Keaschall 3, Braydon Fisher 2, Shane Smith 2, Cam Smith 2, Chandler Simpson 1, Luis Morales 1, Jasson Dominguez 1

Doolittle’s pick: Kurtz

Takeaway: Before the season, Kurtz’s name wasn’t near the top of the list for AL Rookie of the Year candidates. He didn’t lack hype — he was viewed by many as the Athletics’ top prospect — but his meteoric rise was unexpected.

Kurtz, the fourth pick in 2024, played just 12 minor league games and another 13 in last year’s Arizona Fall League before this season. So, it made sense that he began the season in Triple-A, where he posted a 1.000-plus OPS, which he has done every step of the way.

Kurtz debuted in the majors April 23, and 117 games later, his 1.002 rookie-season OPS ranks as the fifth best for a rookie (minimum 480 plate appearances) behind Aaron Judge, Ted Williams, Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun. But none of those greats matched Kurtz’s accomplishment against the Astros on July 25, when he hit four homers, finished with six hits and tied Shawn Green’s big league record for total bases in a game (19).

The ninth Rookie of the Year in Athletics history, Kurtz’s slash line (.290/.383/.619) at 22 is evidence that he’s the complete package at the plate and still might improve. But even if he doesn’t, and this is what he is going forward, he’s one of the best hitters in the majors.

The other two finalists — Anthony and Wilson — were both high on preseason lists for the award and validated that anticipation with fine rookie seasons. Wilson’s .311 average ranked third in the majors. He was one of seven qualifying hitters in the majors to hit at least .300. Anthony lived up to massive hype upon his arrival at Fenway Park, but he suffered an oblique injury Sept. 2, ending his chances of overtaking Kurtz for the award.

Here’s how my AXE leaderboard had it:

1. Nick Kurtz, Athletics (126 AXE, finalist)
2. Jacob Wilson, Athletics (118, finalist)
3. (tie) Roman Anthony, Red Sox (115, finalist)
Noah Cameron, Royals (115)
Colson Montgomery, White Sox (115)
6. Carlos Narvaez, Red Sox (110)
7. Shane Smith, White Sox (109)

ROY must-reads:

Passan Awards: Nick Kurtz wins ‘Individual Performance of the Year’

How a swing tweak has Red Sox rookie Roman Anthony rolling

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National League Rookie of the Year

Winner: Drake Baldwin, Atlanta Braves

Final tally: Drake Baldwin 183 (21 first-place votes), Cade Horton 139 (9), Caleb Durbin 69, Isaac Collins 62, Daylen Lile 17, Agustin Ramirez 10, Chad Patrick 9, Jakob Marsee 8, Jack Dreyer 4, Matt Shaw 4, Jacob Misiorowski 2, Nolan McLean 2, Heriberto Hernandez 1

Doolittle’s pick: Baldwin

Takeaway: The voters favored Baldwin’s full-season production over Horton’s remarkable second half. It was a tough call, but Baldwin established himself as one of the game’s outstanding young catchers. Baldwin hit .274/.341/.469 over 124 games, numbers strong enough to earn him regular DH time on days he wasn’t catching. That’s key, because Atlanta still has veteran Sean Murphy under contract for three more years.

Like his AL counterpart Kurtz, Baldwin was considered his organization’s top prospect by many when the season began, but he was expected to make his big league debut late in 2025 or in 2026. Baldwin got his chance when Murphy suffered a cracked rib in spring training. The Braves had several journeyman backups in camp, but Baldwin was so impressive that he started behind the plate on Opening Day.

Baldwin is the first catcher to win NL Rookie of the Year since Buster Posey in 2010. The only other Braves catcher to win the award was Earl Williams (1971), though Williams divided his time between catching and the infield.

If Horton had a first half that matched his post-All-Star-break performance, he might have been a unanimous pick and even entered the Cy Young debate. In 12 second-half starts, Horton went 8-1 with a 1.03 ERA, allowing just 33 hits while striking out 54 over 61⅓ innings. He allowed one run or fewer in 11 of those outings. Horton’s efforts helped the Chicago Cubs, who were scrambling to make the postseason with a short-handed rotation. This shows up in his probability stats: Horton ranked 12th among all NL pitchers in win probability added and 13th in championship probability added.

Durbin was a vital cog in the Brewers’ run to a franchise-best 97 wins. He was also one of several rookies in Milwaukee who were key contributors to the Brewers’ run to the NLCS. If “Brewers rookie” was an option on the ballot, “Brewers rookie” should have won.

Here’s how my AXE leaderboard had it:

1. Drake Baldwin, Braves (115 AXE, finalist)
2. Caleb Durbin, Brewers (113, finalist)
3. Cade Horton, Cubs (112, finalist)
4. Isaac Collins, Brewers (111)
5. Chad Patrick, Brewers (110)
6. Jakob Marsee, Marlins (109)
7. Braxton Ashcraft, Pirates (108)

American League Manager of the Year

Winner: Stephen Vogt, Cleveland Guardians

Final tally: Vogt 113 (28 first-place votes), John Schneider 91 (10), Dan Wilson 50 (2), Alex Cora 7 (1), A.J. Hinch 6, Joe Espada 3

Doolittle’s pick: Schneider

Takeaway: The AL Manager of the Year race remained murky to me up to and including the day that awards finalists were announced. EARL, an algorithm that seeks to create order out of the chaotic process of rating managers, was all over the place through the season. Hinch, who was favored in many of the betting markets until he turned out to not be a finalist, was submarined by his team’s drastic midseason fall-off (though he should have received credit for side-stepping a complete collapse and earning a playoff spot).

That left last year’s winner, Vogt, whose Guardians made a stirring run to overtake the Tigers in the AL Central, as well as Wilson, skipper of the AL West champion Mariners, and Schneider, who guided the Blue Jays to the East crown. In the end, the voters were picking between the AL’s three division-winning managers.

Worst to first is always a great narrative — and perhaps the best argument in favor for Schneider after the Blue Jays rebounded from 2024’s last-place finish to win Toronto’s first division title in a decade, one that was validated with a postseason run all the way to extra innings of Game 7 of the World Series. Schneider was strong in wins versus Pythagorean-based expectation (94 wins for a win expectation of 88.5) and record in one- and two-run contests (43-30).

But Vogt beat him in both areas, and the same held true in terms of preseason expectations. Toronto beat its preseason over/under consensus by 10 wins, the fourth-best performance in the majors. Third best? Vogt, at 10.5. Vogt becomes the fourth manager to win back-to-back awards, minutes after the Murphy in the NL became the third.

Worst to first: Great story. Coming back from 15½ games back on July 8? Even better.

Here’s how my EARL leaderboard had it:

1. A.J. Hinch, Tigers (108.3 EARL)
2. John Schneider, Blue Jays (107.8, finalist)
3. Joe Espada, Astros (107.0)
4. Stephen Vogt, Guardians (105.2, finalist)
5. Dan Wilson, Mariners (103.5, finalist)
6. Matt Quatraro, Royals (101.8)
7. Mark Kotsay, Athletics (99.6)

Note: EARL is a metric that looks at how a team’s winning percentage varies from expectations generated by projections, run differential and one-run record. While attributing these measures to managerial performance is presumptive, the metric does tend to track well with the annual balloting.

Manager of the Year must-reads:

How the high-contact, high-octane Blue Jays nearly took down a baseball superpower — and could change MLB

The magic chemistry of the Blue Jays clubhouse

How Mariners got their mojo

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National League Manager of the Year

Winner: Pat Murphy, Milwaukee Brewers

Final tally: Murphy 141 (27 first-place votes), Terry Francona 49 (2), Rob Thomson 32 (1), Craig Counsell 24, Clayton McCullough 22, Torey Lovullo 1, Mike Shildt 1

Doolittle’s pick: Murphy

Takeaway: The measures that feed EARL anointed Murphy pretty early in the season. Though the Brewers were a division winner in 2024, when Murphy won the award in his first full season as a big league manager, they were pegged for a .500-ish baseline entering the season. Instead, Milwaukee raced to a franchise record, a 17-win surplus against expectation that was the most in the majors. (McCullough’s Marlins were plus-15, hence his presence in the EARL leaderboard below.)

Murphy creates a fun, positive clubhouse atmosphere, keeping things light when it’s warranted, and getting heavy when it’s needed. He treats everyone the same, from the journeyman roster fill-in to franchise cornerstone Christian Yelich, not to mention everyone else in the great ecosystem of baseball that comes across his path on a daily basis. His skill set in building an upbeat culture doesn’t get enough attention — it’s an essential trait for a club that’s always iterating its roster.

One sign of a good manager is the ability to integrate rookies. Well, this season Milwaukee easily led the majors in rookie WAR, even as the Brewers chased another division crown. They played an exciting brand of offensive baseball that featured plenty of action on the basepaths and adherence to situational execution. They deployed one of the game’s top defenses. All of these things are hallmarks of a well-managed squad.

The Brewers remain perhaps baseball’s best-run franchise, a distinction that requires aptitude from the front office to the dugout, where Murphy presides. He becomes the first back-to-back NL Manager of the Year winner since Bobby Cox (2004-05), who did it with the Braves. The only other back-to-back winner was Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash, the AL’s honoree in 2020-21. Murphy, who managed San Diego on an interim basis in 2015, is the first skipper to win in his first two full seasons.

Here’s how my EARL leaderboard had it:

1. Pat Murphy, Brewers (113.7 EARL, finalist)
2. Clayton McCullough, Marlins (106.9)
3. Oliver Marmol, Cardinals (106.1)
4. Rob Thomson, Phillies (103.9, finalist)
5. Craig Counsell, Cubs (103.4)
6. Mike Shildt, Padres (103.2)
7. Terry Francona, Reds (101.7 finalist)

Manager of the Year must-reads:

Welcome to ‘Milwaukee Community College’: How the Brewers built a $115 million juggernaut

Why Terry Francona, Bruce Bochy came back to managing in MLB

Other awards

Just a run-through of my picks, leaving aside the Comeback Player category, which is tough to attack analytically:

Executive of the Year: Matt Arnold, Milwaukee Brewers. I have a metric I use to track organizational performance. It looks at things such as the performance of acquired players, organizational records and the value produced by rookies. Arnold’s club topped the charts. Arnold won this award last year, so we’ll find out if there is an Arnold fatigue at work here. If Arnold doesn’t win, I’d lean toward Seattle’s Jerry Dipoto.

All-MLB: My All-MVP first team, courtesy of AXE:

1B: Matt Olson, Atlanta Braves
2B: Nico Hoerner, Chicago Cubs
SS: Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals
3B: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians
C: Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners
OF: Juan Soto, New York Mets
OF: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
OF: Corbin Carroll, Arizona Diamondbacks
DH: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers
LHP: Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers
RHP: Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates
RP: Aroldis Chapman, Boston Red Sox

Hank Aaron Award: Aaron Judge (AL, New York Yankees); Shohei Ohtani (NL, Los Angeles Dodgers)

Mariano Rivera Award: Aroldis Chapman, Boston Red Sox

Trevor Hoffman Award: Edwin Diaz, New York Mets

Gold Gloves: The winners have been announced and can be found here. My quibbles: I would have gone with Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk at AL catcher over Detroit’s Dillon Dingler. On the NL side, I’d have liked to find a spot for Washington’s Jacob Young, but the insistence on LF/CF/RF distinctions ruled that out. All in all, another pretty solid job in an awards category that used to be rife with absurdities.

Inspirational thought of the week:

I’m riding slow in my Prius
All-leather, tinted windows, you can’t see us!
Everybody’s trying to park you can feel the tension
I’m in electric mode, can’t even hear the engine
Just then I saw a spot open up
My timing’s perfect! I’m creeping up …
But then this other dude try to steal it
Going the wrong way!
“Hey man I’ve had a long day!”

It’s getting real in the Whole Foods parking lot!
I got my skill and you know it gets sparked a lot

— “It’s Getting Real in the Whole Foods Parking Lot,” DJ Spider

Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located in the massive audio warehouse where Kirk Herbstreit keeps all of the recordings of the “AAAAAWWWWWW”s that people release when they see Peter the dog, we took a look at the calendar hanging on the front of our refrigerator and realized … hang on … we realized that it’s not 2008 like this calendar says … OK … here’s the new one … let’s start over.

We looked at the calendar hanging on the front of our refrigerator and realized there are only three weekends remaining in the 2025 college football season. Or, if you live in the world of #MACtion like we do, only three more weekends plus three more weeks of Tuesday and Wednesday games played between banks of plowed snow.

That means stuff is about to get real. Sure, the hoity-toity top 10 will tell you it’s all about the CFP. But around here, it’s about the BFP, the Bottom 10 Football Playoff. And once we wake up Charlie Weis and get our internet dialed back up, we too shall be shaping up a bracket that shall determine a champion. The real champion. The champion of life. Or, actually, Life. The board game. Where the gold revenge squares give you the option to “sue for damages” with the goal of hitting “retire in style” or “retire to the country to become a philosopher.”

And now it suddenly dawns on us that Brian Kelly and his lawyers must like board games.

With apologies to former Ohio back David Board, former Idaho receiver Tom Gamelin, as well as Georgia State receiver Keron Milton, Air Force lineman Brian Bradley and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 11 Bottom 10 rankings.

The Minuetmen are the nation’s only remaining winless team, but the final three weeks of their #MACtion revenge reunion tour would seem to provide two solid chances to taste victory before tasting the Thanksgiving turkey, beginning with a Wednesday night Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year Mega Bowl visit from Bottom 10 Wait Lister Northern Ill-ugh-noise, which airs at 7 p.m. ET on ESPNU. The ESPN Analytics Ouija board says UMass has a 21.8% chance of victory, its best shot for the rest of the season.

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During this week’s traditional post-weekend #Bottom10Lobbying deluge on social media, I heard from a Nevada grad named @mugtang who wrote: “Nevada would lose by 3 touchdowns to UMass! Rank us #1 in the bottom 10. Or would it be #136?” In related news, after reading his tweet, I went to the store, bought some Tang drink mix and drank it from a mug. With rum in it. Like the astronauts used to do.

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The Panthers lost last week at Coastal Carolina 40-27. Next, they host Marshall, which is convenient for fans of the Thundering Herd, who could just follow the Georgia State bus as it left town because it is a natural law that at any given time, half the population of West Virginia is at Myrtle Beach.

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The Niners travelled Down East to EC-Yew and lost 48-22. In their defense, they weren’t themselves because they were already testing out what it’s like to play covered in bubble wrap and rubber boat bumpers, preparing for their Week 14 trip to Georgia.

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Legend has it that after the angel Moroni showed Joseph Smith the golden plates upon which the Mormon Church was founded, he also warned Smith to make sure to heed the oft-forgotten inscription located on the scratched up backside of the plates: “BEWARE THE COVETED FIFTH SPOT LEST IT BITE YOU IN THE BEHIND IN LUBBOCK.”

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Sources tell Bottom 10 JortsCenter that BC and UMass are secretly looking to play a Bottom 10 Toilet Bowl title game on Christmas Eve morning, to be held in the parking lot of the Mass Turnpike Natick Service Plaza, sponsored by Dunkin’, D’Angelo’s sandwiches and Vinny’s Vape and Spray Tan. Go Sox.

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Hear me out. A reality show where all the college football coaches who have been fired this season meet at a Buffalo Wild Wings and watch games together. Or better yet, they do it at Mike Gundy’s ranch.

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It’s always tough when you didn’t know what you wish you’d known at one time, but it felt better because you thought you knew plenty about a time that was still to come, only to see the time still to come not be what you thought you knew and make that first thing you didn’t know at the time feel like even more of a missed unknown opportunity. See: We didn’t realize how big the Week 3 game between MTSU and Nevada was, and now the game we thought was going to be big — MTSU vs. Sam Houston State on Nov. 22 — isn’t as large as it once was. Why?

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Because of what the Beavs just did. Or, actually, what they failed to do. The Other OSU spent the first two months of the season in these rankings before departing thanks to two straight wins, over Lafayette and fellow 2Pac members Warshington State. It was like the scene in “The Dark Knight Rises” when Bruce Wayne climbed out of that underground desert prison he’d been banished to by Bane … only this time when he got to the top, Bane was waiting to step on his fingers. And who is Bane in this Batman Bottom 10 metaphor?

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(For full Bane effect, read the next lines with your hand cupped over your mouth while doing the accent of a shouting cockney actor who is constipated, while wearing a Bearkats hoodie.) “Kurious how you konkluded this kontrived eskape would be sukcessful, Kaped Krusader! Now we kome for you, Blue Raiders!”

Waiting List: Livin’ on Tulsa Time, Colora-duh State, UTEPid, Arkansaw Fightin’ Petrinos, South Alabama Redundancies, Northern Ill-ugh-noise, billable hours.