On Monday, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) announced the three finalists for each of the 2020 BBWAA Awards representing each league for the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young, and Most Valuable Player awards. And for the third consecutive year, Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash has been recognized as a finalist for the AL Manager of the year.
The schedule for the awards follows, while the MLB Network will exclusively televise the live announcements of the winners of each award during BBWAA Awards Week from November 9-12.
The complete list of award finalists is below.
AL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year:
- Cristian Javier (Houston Astros), Kyle Lewis (Seattle Mariners), Luis Robert (Chicago White Sox)
NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year:
- Alec Bohm (Philadelphia Phillies), Jake Cronenworth (San Diego Padres), Devin Williams (Milwaukee Brewers)
AL Manager of the Year:
- Kevin Cash (Tampa Bay Rays), Charlie Montoyo (Toronto Blue Jays), Rick Renteria (Chicago White Sox)
NL Manager of the Year:
- Don Mattingly (Miami Marlins), David Ross (Chicago Cubs), Jayce Tingler (San Diego Padres)
AL Cy Young Award:
- Shane Bieber (Cleveland Indians), Kenta Maeda (Minnesota Twins), Hyun Jin Ryu (Toronto Blue Jays)
NL Cy Young Award:
- Trevor Bauer (Cincinnati Reds), Yu Darvish (Chicago Cubs), Jacob deGrom (New York Mets)
AL Most Valuable Player:
- José Abreu (Chicago White Sox), DJ LeMahieu (New York Yankees), José Ramírez (Cleveland Indians)
NL Most Valuable Player:
- Mookie Betts (Los Angeles Dodgers), Freddie Freeman (Atlanta Braves), Manny Machado (San Diego Padres)
Cash was nominated for the Manager of the Year award in each of the last two seasons, yet he finished third after leading Tampa Bay to consecutive 90+ win seasons in 2018 (90) and 2019 (96 and a playoff berth). Votes are made by the national BBWAA writers at the end of the regular season.
This season, Cash led the Rays to the best record in the American League, while they won the AL East for just the third time in franchise history. At 40-20 on the season, it was just the second time Tampa Bay had the best mark in the AL in spite of season-ending injuries to six pitchers, and more than a dozen injured list stints overall, not to mention six other players that were shelved during the regular season or summer camp due to COVID-19.