2026 MLB awards: Expert picks for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year

Pete Crow-Armstrong or Shohei Ohtani? Are Sal Stewart's RBIs enough to win Rookie of the Year? Can anyone beat Jacob Misiorowski?

Sep 24, 2026 at 9:00 am ET • 8 min read

The 2026 MLB regular season is almost over and what a wild ride it's been. A few playoff races are left to be sorted out this weekend, then it's into the postseason.

So what's left? Awards. Will Cubs breakout star Pete Crow-Armstrong finally take the mantle from Shohei Ohtani and win National League MVP? Has Yankees youngster Cam Schlittler proven worthy of the American Cy Young award? What about MVP? Can anyone compete with Kevin McGonigle for Rookie of the Year?

The official awards won't be handed out until November, but your CBS Sports MLB experts are here with their votes in September:

American League

Award	Mike Axisa	Kate Feldman	Dayn Perry	Matt Snyder
MVP	Yordan Alvarez	Junior Caminero	Cam Schlittler	Yordan Alvarez
Cy Young	Cam Schlittler	Cam Schlittler	Cam Schlittler	Cam Schlittler
Rookie of the Year	Kevin McGonigle	Kevin McGonigle	Kevin McGonigle	Kevin McGonigle

Axisa: I'm not super duper convinced the MVP is Yordan and I strongly considered Junior Caminero and Cam Schlittler. Their performances are more or less on par with each other, but I don't think there's any chance whatsoever the Astros would be in the AL West race (as feeble as that race is) without Alvarez. The Rays and Yankees are probably postseason teams without Caminero and Schlittler. The Astros are at best mediocre. Alvarez is the tide lifting that boat, so he's my MVP. Dylan Cease's fade over the last few weeks made this an easy call. Schlittler will go into his final start just behind Michael Wacha for AL innings lead and his 1.94 ERA is almost half a run better than the next best guy. The under-the-hood numbers (FIP, expected ERA, etc.) are all in his favor as well. Pretty easy call here. Parker Messick has made this a very interesting race and he would be third on my hypothetical Cy Young ballot behind Schlittler and Cease. McGonigle is the Rookie of the Year to me because he's been a top 10 position player in the sport. He's top 10 in WAR and top 15 in on-base percentage, and he's played splendid defense while bouncing between shortstop and third base. I won't argue with anyone who prefers Messick. He'd be my winner most years. Just not in the same year McGonigle is having the year he's having.

Feldman: All credit to Dylan Cease and, uh, other rookies in the American League, but Cy Young and Rookie of the Year aren't really races this year. Go forth and take your awards, Cam Schlittler and Kevin McGonigle. MVP, on the other hand, is tighter in my mind than I think a lot of people view it. Yordan Alvarez has been dominant, and Schlittler has been so good that I honestly wouldn't hate voting for him, but to me, it's Junior Caminero. It's almost impossible to imagine the Rays taking the AL East crown without Caminero, and that's what I consider value. It's right there in the title.

Perry: MVP is really a tough call for me between Cam Schlittler and Yordan Alvarez (also with a strong nod in Junior Caminero's direction). I'm not normally a "pitcher as MVP" kind of observer, but there are exceptions. Schlittler is one. At this writing, he has a sub-2.00 ERA, an ERA+ of 217, and 190 ⅔ innings (a veritable load by contemporary standards). Schlittler's also struck out 31.3% of opposing batters, which is a stellar figure for a starting pitcher. That's broad-based dominance, and that's why he just barely edges out Alvarez for me. As for Cy Young, well, see above. There's not really any such thing as a wire-to-wire winner of an award like Rookie of the Year, but Kevin McGonigle comes closer. Cleveland's Parker Messick would be a worthy choice most years, but McGonigle just checked too many boxes. He's a primary shortstop with an OBP-heavy 125 OPS+, some pop, value on the bases, and almost as many walks as strikeouts, all in his age-21 season. 

Snyder: Yordan Alvarez's offensive case for MVP is overwhelming. Junior Caminero has a great case, but it's similar to Alvarez in makeup (power-heavy, mostly all hitting) and is inferior in the categories where they similarly thrive. It would be a tougher decision if this were between a low-average slugger and an all-around stud having a big year. Cam Schlittler's sub-2.00 ERA in nearly 200 innings with 232 strikeouts dwarfs the rest of the Cy Young field here, including Dylan Cease. As for Rookie of the Year, what an all-around great season for Kevin McGonigle. He's hit for a quality average, gotten on base at a high clip, hit for decent-to-good power, stolen 12 bases and played good infield defense. He even made the All-Star team in the ballpark where he grew up watching games. The power of Munetaka Murakami was worth a quick look, but his tumble in the second half crushes his chances and I like McGonigle's all-around case better than the pitching side from Parker Messick.

National League

Award	Mike Axisa	Kate Feldman	Dayn Perry	Matt Snyder
MVP	Pete Crow-Armstrong	Pete Crow-Armstrong	Pete Crow-Armstrong	Pete Crow-Armstrong
Cy Young	Jacob Misiorowski	Jacob Misiorowski	Jacob Misiorowski	Jacob Misiorowski
Rookie of the Year	Carson Benge	Carson Benge	JJ Wetherholt	Sal Stewart

Axisa: PCA is the easiest call among this year's awards. It was a race as recently as about a month ago, but Shohei Ohtani's injuries and declining performance (two things that are almost certainly related) took the mystery out of it. PCA has been the best player in baseball this season and he would be my pick for MLB MVP, if such a thing exists. In terms of Cy Young, normally I'm an innings guy. I want my winner to throw a lot of innings, not just be great on a per-inning basis. I strongly considered Cristopher Sánchez for that reason. He'll wind up throwing 30-something more innings than Jacob Misiorowski. Sánchez has a 3.47 ERA since the All-Star break through, which is very good but not quite Cy Young-worthy in my book. Those innings mean a lot to me. Ultimately, Misiorowski has been so dominant that I'm willing to overlook the innings gap this year and make him my Cy Young pick. Chris Sale is right here too, though he's thrown even fewer innings than Misiorowski and been a hair worse in those innings. JJ Wetherholt is the pick for Rookie of the Year based on WAR, though I'm an offense-first guy, and Wetherholt has been a league-average hitter with a terrific glove. Benge has been comfortably above-average at the plate overall (and even better than that over the last four months or so) and his defense has really leveled up after needing a few weeks to settle in at the big-league level. Wetherholt is a fantastic player I would take on my team any day. Same with Nolan McLean. He was right there in the Rookie of the Year race for me. In the end, I prefer Benge's offense and overall play to Wetherholt's defense-heavy production. 

Feldman: Pete Crow-Armstrong vs. Shohei Ohtani was interesting until it wasn't, and PCA is the easy choice here for me. That wasn't just the best showing in 2026 in the National League. That was one of the best showings we've ever seen. Ditto Jacob Misiorowski, who is more than a circus act, no matter what the speed gun shows. It's actually a little impressive that the Mets have two Rookie of the Year candidates in Carson Benge and Nolan McLean and are still as bad as they are. Anyway, any of the four rookies (Benge, McLean, JJ Wetherholt and Sal Stewart) would be valid picks to me, but Benge looked so good for most of the season after looking so bad in the beginning of the year that I see a guy who kept fighting to prove how impressive he is both offensively and defensively (if we're giving PCA all that credit for his defense -- which we should -- let's do the same for Benge). Maybe that's me voting for a narrative instead of a player, but that kind of resilience bodes well -- as does the talent.

Perry: If Shohei Ohtani had been able to make, say, 10 more starts on the mound, then MVP might be an interesting discussion. As things are, though, it's PCA in a blowout. In addition to being probably the best fielder at any position, he's also on the cusp of a 40-40 season and a 10-WAR season. PCA's improved patience at the plate has allowed him to take the next step as a hitter, and what a step it's been. The Miz is a bit light on innings as Cy Young winners go, but there's no ignoring his level of dominance across those innings. In addition to a sub-2.00 ERA and an FIP that's almost as low, he's closing in on 250 strikeouts for the season. On another level, he's probably the most "appointment viewing" pitcher in baseball right now. One gets the sense that this won't be his last such award. Rookie of the Year is the toughest call of all, and no one's really seized this award like McGonigle has in the other league. JJ Wetherholt, though, is the narrow winner for me. He's probably the best fielder in baseball not named PCA, and he's also got 17 home runs to his credit this season. He adds value on the bases, and he's been a quality hitter outside of run-suppressing Busch Stadium. 

Snyder: It's funny to look back a month and think about how heated the MVP debates were. This ended up being a blowout. Pete Crow-Armstrong put up one of the five or so best position-player seasons this century if we look at WAR. Even if you don't, there's no denying the total package here. He might even lead the majors in homers while not being far off in steals and sporting a good average and high OBP. Some metrics have him as the best defender in the sport, too. With Cristopher Sánchez faltering and Jesús Luzardo falling injured down the stretch, Jacob Misiorowski's biggest competition for Cy Young is Chris Sale. Still, I'm not even thinking twice about Miz here. He's been the biggest attraction on the mound all season for good reason. The Brewers have had to conserve his workload, as they have World Series aspirations, but sitting around 170 innings isn't prohibitive and his rate stats jump off the page. Meanwhile, the path is clear for Sal Stewart to become the first rookie in National League history to lead the league in RBI. He's also the 14th rookie ever to reach 30 home runs and 100 RBI in a season. I might lean new school in the other categories, but for some reason I'm a sucker for stuff like this with rookies. He's making history in a traditional category and I got sucked in. I understand the cases for Benge and Wetherholt, but I'm going with Stewart.