It’s Awards Season!

On Monday night, Major League Baseball announced the finalists for all of the major awards for the 2020 season. Two Blue Jays, Hyun Jin Ryu and Charlie Montoyo, have been nominated.

Montoyo is a finalist for American League Manager of the Year along with Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays and Rick Renteria formerly of the Chicago White Sox.

I wrote a little while ago why I think Montoyo has a good shot at winning the award. It often goes to a manager of a team that breaks out or exceeds expectations and the Blue Jays were exactly that. Navigating through not having a home for the first chunk of the season will also be a big play for Montoyo here I would imagine.

And then there’s Ryu, who’s a finalist for the American League Cy Young Award along with Cleveland’s Shane Bieber and Minnesota’s Kenta Maeda. It’s great to see Ryu nominated but there’s no doubting that Bieber is going to win this thing. He posted an 8-1 record with a league-leading 1.63 ERA while striking out an obscene 14.2 batters per nine.

Ryu finished second in National League Cy Young voting last season and I’m guessing he’ll finish second in voting here.