Los Angeles Dodgers: Several players up for awards

The Los Angeles Dodgers set a franchise record in wins this season and have two players up for major awards for their performances.

Sunday evening officially started awards season for Major League Baseball. Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers was awarded the first Gold Glove of his career. Bellinger was named the top right fielder; during the season Bellinger was second in assists by a right fielder (10) and lead the National League in fielding percentage for a right fielder (.990).

Bellinger is the first Dodger position player to win the award since Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, who were both Gold Glove winners in 2011 for their outfield play. The last Dodger to win a Gold Glove was pitcher Zack Greinke in 2015.

Bellinger received even more good news on the awards front when he was named a finalist for National League Most Valuable Player. Bellinger was named a finalist along with the 2018 winner Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers and World Series winner Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals.

Bellinger set career highs hitting .304 while crushing 47 home runs and driving in 115 runs, he also led MLB in Baseball-Reference WAR (9.0), total bases (351) and intentional walks (21). Bellinger did all this while helping the Dodgers win a franchise-high 106 wins.

The last Dodger to win NL MVP was Clayton Kershaw, won in 2014. Before that, two Dodgers finished second; in 2011 it was Matt Kemp and in 2004 it was Adrian Beltre. No Dodgers position player has won an NL MVP since Kirk Gibson in 1988.

The vote will likely be close, Yelich lost the last month due to injury but did lead the league in hitting (.329) and had 30/30 season hitting 30 home runs while stealing 30 bases. Rendon led the league in RBI (126) and doubles (44) while driving the Nationals to a playoff spot.

Based on his defense and offense prowess, Bellinger should be MVP, but a late-season slump and the surge Rendon and the Nationals went on late makes me think Bellinger comes in second in a close vote.

Bellinger wasn’t the only Dodger to be named a finalist as pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu was named a finalist for the NL CY Young Award. Ryu was named along with Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets the 2018 winner and Max Scherzer of the Nationals a three-time winner.

Ryu lead MLB in ERA (2.32) and tied his career-high with 14 wins. Ryu seemed to have the award all sewn up but a 4.26 ERA over the last two months derailed the good times and it’s likely deGrom repeats.

deGrom led the league in strikeouts (255) and pitching WAR (7.3). Mainly bias and timing will be Ryu’s downfall. While Ryu struggled late, deGrom struggled early and plays in the east coast market where baseball writers keep a keener eye.