With the regular season in the rearview mirror, various publications will be bestowing various awards upon players in MLB.
The most well-known awards like the “official” MVP, Cy Young, Gold Gloves, etc. won’t come out until well after the World Series, but there are several others to keep tabs on in the meantime.
One such series of awards comes from the MLB Players Association, who announced the various finalists for their highest honors. Unsurprisingly, several members of the Chicago Cubs made the cut (Remember: there are just three finalists per award, so these are fairly impressive showings):
Congratulations #PlayersChoiceAwards16 Outstanding Pitcher finalists… pic.twitter.com/9QYz5KqBI3
— #MLBPA (@MLB_PLAYERS) September 30, 2016
[adinserter block=”1″]
Congratulations #PlayersChoiceAwards16 Outstanding Player finalists… pic.twitter.com/DAyBYPhdmv
— #MLBPA (@MLB_PLAYERS) September 30, 2016
Congratulations #PlayersChoiceAwards16 #MarvinMiller Man of the Year finalists @cgrand3 @ARizzo44 & @redturn2 #CareActInspire pic.twitter.com/sa7Bsfh1Xj
— #MLBPA (@MLB_PLAYERS) September 30, 2016
You can see all of the awards and candidates here at the Players’ Association website, but those are the Cubs’ representatives above.
Hendricks is battling Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer in the race for best pitcher and Kris Bryant is up against Nolan Arenado and Daniel Murphy for most outstanding (position) player in the National League.
Similarly, Anthony Rizzo has been nominated for Marvin Miller Man of the Year which is an award that spans both leagues (making his nomination alone a huge, but deserved honor), and is given to the player “whose on-field performance and contributions to his community inspire others to higher levels of achievement.”
[adinserter block=”2″]
Rizzo was actually a finalist for the Marvin Miller award back in 2014, but lost out to Clayton Kershaw. This time, he’ll have to edge out Curtis Granderson and Justin Turner to take it home.
All three Cubs are deserving of their candidacy, but have their work cut out for them. Hendricks is up against two of the better pitchers in baseball over the past half-decade, and Kris Bryant is up against some of the best offensive performers in the league this year. With any luck, the Cubs can take home some hardware and be further recognized for their enormous contributions both on and off the field.
The Players Choice Award winners will be announced exclusively on MLB Network on Wednesday, November 9, from 7 PM – 8:30 PM CT.