Alek Manoah became the ninth Toronto Blue Jays pitcher in franchise history to be named a finalist for the American League Cy Young award on Monday.
The Baseball Writers Association of America revealed each league's three finalists for Major League Baseball's four major awards: Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year.
Winners and full voting results for each league will be announced next week.
Here is a look at the full list of finalists.
AL MVP
Yordan Alvarez, OF/DH, Houston Astros
Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees
Shohei Ohtani, DH/SP, Los Angeles Angels
Judge broke the AL record with 62 home runs, tied for the big league lead with 131 RBIs and was second in the AL with a .311 batting average.
He also led the majors in runs (133), on-base percentage (.425), slugging percentage (.686), OPS (1.111), extra-base hits (90) and total bases (391) to help the New York Yankees win the AL East. The 6-foot-7 outfielder became a free agent Sunday.
Ohtani, last year's AL MVP, put together perhaps the greatest two-way season in baseball history for a third-place Los Angeles Angels team that finished 73-89.
The superstar from Japan went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and 219 strikeouts in 28 starts on the mound covering 166 innings. At the plate, he batted .273 with 34 homers, 95 RBIs and an .875 OPS.
Alvarez, the Houston slugger who launched a go-ahead homer in the clinching game of the World Series last weekend, hit .306 with 37 home runs, 97 RBIs and a 1.019 OPS during the regular season.
NL MVP
Nolan Arenado, 3B, St. Louis Cardinals
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals
Manny Machado, 3B, San Diego Padres
AL Cy Young
Alek Manoah, Toronto Blue Jays
Dylan Cease, Chicago White Sox
Justin Verlander, Houston Astros
Manoah finished the 2022 season with a 16-7 record, posting a 2.24 ERA, a 0.992 WHIP and 180 strikeouts.
This marks the third straight year a Blue Jays pitcher has been nominated for the American League Cy Young, with Hyun Jin Ryu being named as a finalist in 2020 and Robbie Ray winning the award in 2021.
The 24-year-old is the ninth and youngest Blue Jay to be nominated for the honour.
Verlander of the World Series champion Houston Astros is a heavy favourite to win his third Cy Young Award after the 39-year-old ace went 18-4 with a major league-low 1.75 ERA this season in a marvellous comeback from Tommy John surgery.
NL Cy Young
Sandy Alcantara, Miami Marlins
Max Fried, Atlanta Braves
Julio Urias, Los Angeles Dodgers
AL Rookie of the Year
Steven Kwan, OF, Cleveland Guardians
Julio Rodriguez, OF, Seattle Mariners
Adley Rutschman, C, Baltimore Orioles
Notably absent from the trio of finalists was Houston shortstop Jeremy Pena, a breakout star in the postseason following his solid regular season.
Pena, who won a Gold Glove last week, was the World Series MVP against Philadelphia and the AL Championship Series MVP versus the Yankees. He became the first hitter to take those three prizes in an entire career, according to OptaSTATS -- doing it all in his rookie season.
NL Rookie of the Year
Brendan Donovan, IF/OF, St. Louis Cardinals
Michael Harris II, OF, Atlanta Braves
Spencer Strider, SP, Atlanta Braves
AL Manager of the Year
Terry Francona, Cleveland Guardians
Brandon Hyde, Baltimore Orioles
Scott Servais, Seattle Mariners
NL Manager of the Year
Dave Roberts, Los Angeles Dodgers
Buck Showalter, New York Mets
Brian Snitker, Atlanta Braves
Showalter is trying to join Hall of Famers Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa as the only managers to win the award four times.
Rob Thomson didn't make the cut after taking over the NL champion Phillies when Joe Girardi was fired in early June and guiding them to their first playoff berth in 11 years.
Philadelphia was 22-29 when Thomson was promoted from bench coach to interim manager, and the Phillies went 65-46 the rest of the regular season. He was rewarded with a two-year contract last month.
-With files from the Associated Press
