Chicago Cubs Award Finalists and When MLB Will Announce Individual Awards

The Chicago Cubs had an amazing season in 2015. The 97 wins, the NLCS appearance, the excitement over the rookies, and Joe Maddon have made this season more fun than any in recent memory. With the great season, there were many great individual performances as well, and some of our Cubs are finalists for some of the most prestigious individual awards baseball has.

Chicago Cubs awards finalists

You can expect to celebrate three Chicago Cubs award winners by the end of next week, as their performance have certainly merited recognition. While some of these races will be close, I expect a clean sweep for the Cubs awards finalists.

National League Rookie of the Year

While there have been great performances from several rookies in 2015, none have made the impact that the Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant has. Not only is Bryant the consensus favorite to take home the award, he has already been named the NL Most Outstanding Rookie (voted on by players), and Baseball America’s Rookie of the Year in which he became the first player to be named College Player of the Year, Minor League Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year in successive years.

Competition 

Kris Bryant will have stiff competition for the NL honor. While Bryant should remain the heavy favorite, there are some other rookies that had great 2015 seasons.

Matt Duffy – Another third baseman, Duffy had a phenomenal season for the San Francisco Giants. His .295/.324/.428 slash line was impressive, and while his average took a dip towards the end of a long season, he had it over .300 for a good portion of the season.

Jung Ho Kang – Kang played a great shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2015. Owning a .287/.355/.461 slash line, his offensive play helped the Pirates make the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Unfortunately his season was cut short by a Chris Coghlan slide, he will likely finish third in the NL Rookie of the Year race.

Kris Bryant – Bryant was the leader of the pack from the day he was called up (or maybe his second game). He hit 26 HRs, drove in 99, had a slash line of .275/.369/.488 and led all rookies with a 5.5 WAR. Not to mention Kris was a huge part of a Cubs team that made its first trip to the playoffs since 2008.

The award will be announced Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern on MLB Network.

Jamie Baker

Hi, I’m Jamie and I run this site. I’ve published work on multiple other sites and through that experience I decided to create CHICAGO style SPORTS. We truly aim to speak for the Chicago fan. Additionally, as a member of the IBWAA (Internet Baseball Writers Association of America) you can be assured that all content you read will be written with incredible integrity.

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