Midseason MLB Accolades

We've hit the All*Star Break, the point of the Major League Baseball season where you take stock of what's happened over the first three months and start thinking about who'll be buyers and sellers at the trade deadline.  Although, there are so many teams close enough to a playoff spot that the number of sellers might be very limited.  The next two weeks could go a long way in determining that.  And, if one thing's for certain, it's that the final standings will look a lot different than they do now. 

How things are now, though, are all we can use to determine who would be MLB's award winners if the season ended today.  That's almost certain to change, too.  Some of the frontrunners at the All*Star Break go on to win, but we're just as likely to see someone come out of nowhere and snatch the award from them with a monster second half.  As it stands at the All*Star Break, though, here are my award winners for the 2026 season, including the recipients of the prestigious LVP and Cy Old for the worst hitter and pitcher in each league so far this season.

AL MVP: Yordan Alvarez, Astros-With Aaron Judge out of the running, the AL MVP is there for the taking.  And Yordan Alvarez has taken full advantage.  In fact, he's running away with it.  Alvarez is flirting with a Triple Crown for an Astros team that has him and really not much else.  He's, fact, flirting with the Major League lead in the three Triple Crown categories.  Alvarez is only four points behind Yandy Diaz in average.  Otherwise, he would have it.  (And he's the runaway Major League leader in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage, as well.)

AL LVP: Austin Wells, Yankees-Austin Wells was good for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.  For the Yankees during the regular season, he hasn't been.  There was a point earlier this week when Wells had 10 total RBIs for the season...a day after Ryan O'Hearn had 10 RBIs in a game for the Orioles.  Yeah, it's been that bad.

AL Cy Young: Cam Schlittler, Yankees-For most of the season, Cam Schlittler has been the best pitcher in the American League.  Even after a little blip for a few starts, there's still an argument that he is.  Schlittler leads the AL in ERA and WHIP, and he's second in strikeouts and batting average against.  He's been the ace that the Yankees have needed with Gerrit Cole and Max Fried (and now Carlos Rodon) missing time due to injury.

AL Cy Old: Jeffrey Springs, Athletics-Oaklamento was a nice little story early in the season.  The A's were even in first place for a little while.  They've come back to Earth since, and Springs is one of the biggest culprits.  He's got the most losses and the highest ERA in the American League.  Springs has also given up 26 home runs, 10 of which came in June alone (when he had a 10.00 ERA for the month).

AL Rookie: Munetaka Murakami, White Sox-This could end up being a great head-to-head battle between two Japanese imports.  Murakami was running away with it for the first few weeks of the season, then he went on the IL and Kazuma Okamoto surged to the front statistically.  Murakami's impact has been far greater than Okamoto's, though.  He's one of the biggest reasons why the White Sox are in first place.

AL Manager: Will Venable, White Sox-The White Sox have been pretty bad for the past few seasons.  To say they've turned it around this year would be an understatement.  At the All*Star Break, they're tied for first place and one of just five teams in the American League with a winning record.  They had 60 wins all season in 2025.  They already have 50 this year.

NL MVP: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers-At this point, the only thing that can stop Ohtani from winning MVP every year is an injury.  He's continued to do what he usually does offensively.  Ohtani has also been dominant on the mound in his first full year pitching since 2023.  In case there was any remaining doubt that he's a unicorn, this season, he's a Cy Young contender, too.

NL LVP: Ezequiel Tovar, Rockies-Colorado is a bad team, so it seems a little unfair to single out a Rockies player as the worst in the National League during the first half.  And there are plenty of contenders from other teams, too.  But I'm going with Tovar since Colorado has continued to roll him out there (perhaps because of the lack of another option) despite his .200 batting average with no power and no walks.  It's not like he's in there for his great defense, either.  Tovar already has seven errors this season.

NL Cy Young: Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers-Last year, Misiorowski was called up in June and immediately took the Majors by storm.  He's only been in the Majors for a little more than a calendar year and is already the best pitcher in the game.  Misiorowski leads all of Baseball in both ERA and strikeouts by a wide margin, and he's also the Major League leader in WHIP and batting average against.  Plus, all of his starts are events.  Misiorowski is the biggest pitching star in the sport.

NL Cy Old: Zac Gallen, Diamondbacks-It wasn't too long ago that Gallen and Merrill Kelly were the co-aces of a staff that carried the Diamondbacks to a surprise World Series appearance.  This season feels like a far cry from that pennant-winning 2023 campaign.  Gallen is 3-9 with a 6.34 ERA and has just 61 strikeouts in 98 innings.  Arizona 49-47 overall, but just 6-13 in Gallen's starts.

NL Rookie: Sal Stewart, Reds-There are a lot of good rookies in the NL.  Sal Stewart stands out the most in that group.  He's played every game for the Reds and made the All*Star team.  Stewart also leads all rookies in RBIs and has more extra base hits (22 doubles, 19 HR) than any other rookie in either league.

NL Manager: Don Mattingly, Phillies-Remember how bad the Phillies were at the start of the season?  So bad that they fired Rob Thomson.  Enter Don Mattingly.  They're 45-24 since he took over, including a 16-4 stretch in his first 20 games, and have firmly moved into playoff position.  The Phillies are loaded.  They should be this good.  But they wouldn't be without the steady presence of Don Mattingly in the dugout.