Awards wrap-up: Box-Toppers points leaders win 3 of 6 major postseason awards in 2022

Here's how Box-Toppers points leaders fared in the six major postseason awards for 2022 as voted by the Baseball Writers Association of Ameica. The winners of the six major awards are listed at left with the Box-Toppers points (BTP) leader in each category listed at right. Rank shows the players’ rank among all players in 2022.

Most Valuable Player
AL winner Team Pos BTP Rank AL BTP leader Team Pos BTP Rank
Aaron Judge* Yankees cf rf 13.2 28 Shohei Ohtani* Angels pi sp 24.7 2
NL winner Team Pos BTP Rank NL BTP leader Team Pos BTP Rank
Paul Goldschmidt Cardinals 1b 7.5 88 Pete Alonso Mets 1b 14.9 20
Cy Young Award
AL winner Team Pos BTP Rank AL BTP leader Team Pos BTP Rank
Justin Verlander Astros pi sp 26.0 1 Justin Verlander Astros pi sp 26.0 1
NL winner Team Pos BTP Rank NL BTP leader Team Pos BTP Rank
Sandy Alcantara Marlins pi sp 21.1 3 Sandy Alcantara Marlins pi sp 21.1 3
Rookie of the Year
AL winner Team Pos BTP Rank AL BTP leader Team Pos BTP Rank
Julio Rodriguez Mariners cf 7.5 90 Julio Rodriguez** Mariners cf 7.5 90
NL winner Team Pos BTP Rank NL BTP leader Team Pos BTP Rank
Michael Harris II Braves cf 3.5 288 Spencer Strider Braves pi sp 13.4 27
* Shohei Ohtani was Box-Toppers’ choice for AL MVP. He ranked second among all players with 24.7 Box-Toppers points. However, Aaron Judge led all American League batters in Box-Toppers points with 13.2. Though Ohtani had more points than Judge, he did not qualify to rank among batters because he earned the overwhelming majority of his Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors as a pitcher (13 of 17), even though he played far more games as a designated hitter.
** Two AL rookie pitchers had more 2022 Box-Toppers points than Julio Rodriguez’s 7.5—Joe Ryan of the Twins (14.7) and George Kirby of the Mariners (11.4). But in cases in which pitchers and batters compete for the same award, Box-Toppers gives batters the benefit of a doubt, doubling their Box-Toppers point total when comparing them to pitchers. In this case, doubling Rodiguez’s 7.5 points to 15.0, beating Ryan’s 14.7 total for the season.
BTP: Box-Toppers points

Box-Toppers’ choices for baseball’s major postseason awards won three of six of the 2022 honors.

Box-Toppers postseason honors ballot

Here is a look at Box-Toppers’ ballot selections for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) 2022 postseason awards. The ballot requires votes out to 10 places for Most Valuable Player in both leagues, five for Cy Young Awards in each league and three for Rookie of the Year.

Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2022.

AL Most Valuable Player
Player Team BTP
1 Shohei Ohtani Angels 24.7
2 Aaron Judge Yankees 13.2
3 Justin Verlander Astros 26.0
4 Jose Ramirez Guardians 11.7
5 Dylan Cease White Sox 20.4
6 Yordan Alvarez Astros 8.7
7 Alex Bregman Astros 8.7
8 Shane McClanahan Rays 16.4
9 George Springer Blue Jays 8.0
10 Framber Valdez Astros 16.0
NL Most Valuable Player
Player Team BTP
1 Pete Alonso Mets 14.9
2 Mookie Betts Dodgers 11.7
3 Sandy Alcantara Marlins 21.1
4 Brandon Woodruff Brewers 20.8
5 Carlos Rodon Giants 19.8
6 Julio Urias Dodgers 19.4
7 Zac Gallen Diamondbacks 18.7
8 Mark Canha Mets 8.7
9 Joe Musgrove Padres 17.4
10 Freddie Freeman Dodgers 8.5
AL Cy Young
Player Team BTP
1 Justin Verlander Astros 26.0
2 Dylan Cease White Sox 20.4
3 Shohei Ohtani Angels 24.7
4 Shane McClanahan Rays 16.4
5 Framber Valdez Astros 16.0
NL Cy Young
Player Team BTP
1 Sandy Alcantara Marlins 21.1
2 Brandon Woodruff Brewers 20.8
3 Carlos Rodon Giants 19.8
4 Julio Urias Dodgers 19.4
5 Zac Gallen Diamondbacks 18.7
AL Rookie of the Year
Player Team BTP
1 Julio Rodriguez Mariners 7.5
2 Joe Ryan Twins 14.7
3 George Kirby Mariners 11.4
NL Rookie of the Year
Player Team BTP
1 Spencer Strider Braves 13.4
2 Nolan Gorman Cardinals 5.0
3 Brendan Donovan Cardinals 4.0
Box-Toppers gives batters a generous, if somewhat arbitrary, benefit of the doubt in these rankings. In cases where batters are directly compared to pitchers, Box-Toppers ranks batters as if their season Box-Toppers point total were doubled. For example, in rankings for AL MVP, Aaron Judge ranks second with 13.2 points even though several pitchers (notably Justin Verlander of the Astros with 26.0) have more points. Box-Toppers arbitrarily doubles batters’ point totals in figuring these rankings, which would give Judge 26.4 points, ahead of Verlander’s 26.0. But since we’re doubling points for batters, we will also double the points Shohei Ohtani of the Angels earned as a batter. He earned 19.4 points as a pitcher and 5.0 as a batter. Doubling his batter points to 10.0 would give him 29.4 adjusted points, ahead of Judge’s adjusted total of 26.4.
While MVP is traditionally a batter's award, it has been awarded to pitchers either when they have a dominant season, no batters particularly rise to the occasion—or both.

Also, Box-Toppers’ top-ranked American League batter, Aaron Judge of the Yankees, won the AL MVP, though our choice for the award was Shohei Ohtani of the Angels.

So stretching things a bit, we can say Box-Toppers leaders won four of the six major awards, which include the Most Valuable Player, Cy Young for top pitcher and Rookie of the Year in both the National League and American Leagues.

Here’s where Box-Toppers and the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), the organization that votes on the awards, agreed on winners:

  • AL Cy Young Award winner—Justin Verlander of the Astros. He led all players with 26.0 Box-Toppers points in 2022.

  • NL Cy Young Award winner—Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins. He led all NL pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, third among all players.

  • AL Rookie of the Year—Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners. He had 7.5 Box-Toppers points, which was slightly more than half the point total of the top AL rookie pitcher, Joe Ryan of the Twins (14.7). In cases in which batters and pitchers are eligible for the same award, we give batters a generous, if arbitrary, benefit of the doubt and double their Box-Toppers point total when comparing them to pitchers. This gives Rodriguez an adjusted total of 15.0 points which beats Ryan’s 14.7.

In five of the six awards, one of the players Box-Toppers listed as a finalist for the award actually won the honor. However, none of the three finalists for NL Most Valuable Player, including the winner Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals, was among Box-Toppers’ top 10 choices for the award.

Here is a more detailed look at how Box-Toppers’ choices fared in postseason awards:

American League Most Valuable Player

Winner Aaron Judge of the Yankees led AL batters in 2022 Box-Toppers points (13.2), but ranked second among AL MVP candidates on Box-Toppers’ ballot, behind Shohei Ohtani of the Angels.

At first glance, Judge is MVP because he led AL batters in Box-Toppers points in a season in which he hit 62 home runs, breaking the 61-year-old AL single-season record.

Award finalists

Here are finalists for the Cy Young, Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards, as named by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Players are listed by their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2022 and their Box-Toppers rank in their award category.

Cy Young finalists
AL finalists Team BTP Rank*
Justin Verlander Astros 26.0 1
Dylan Cease White Sox 20.4 3
Alek Manoah Blue Jays 13.1 14
NL finalists Team BTP Rank*
Sandy Alcantara Marlins 21.1 1
Julio Urias Dodgers 19.4 4
Max Fried Braves 16.0 8
Most Valuable Player Awards finalists
AL finalists Team BTP Rank*
Shohei Ohtani Angels 24.7 ‑§
Aaron Judge Yankees 13.2 1
Yordan Alvarez Astros 8.7 3
NL finalists Team BTP Rank*
Paul Goldschmidt Cardinals 7.5 7
Nolan Arenado Cardinals 7.0 9
Manny Machado Padres 5.5 23
**Pete Alonso Mets 14.9 1
Rookie of the Year finalists
AL finalists Team BTP Rank†
Julio Rodriguez Mariners 7.5 2
Steven Kwan Guardians 5.0 7
Adley Rutschman Orioles 4.0 15
NL finalists Team BTP Rank†
Spencer Strider Braves 13.4 1
Brendan Donovan Cardinals 4.0 14
Michael Harris II Braves 3.5 18
BTP—Box-Toppers points
* Rank shows a player’s rank among potential players eligible for the award. For example, AL Cy Young finalists are ranked among AL pitchers, AL MVP finalists are ranked among AL batters.
** Player led the league category in Box-Toppers points but is not among the three finalists for the award.
† Rookie of the Year candidates are ranked among players who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2022. (Some players who still qualified as rookies in 2022 made their Box-Toppers debut in 2021.)
§ Ohtani finished second among AL players in Box-Toppers points (24.7), but did not qualify to rank among AL batters because he earned such an overwhelming majority of his Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors as a pitcher. He earned four of his 17 Player of the Game honors as a batter (23.5 percent), compared to 13 as a pitcher (76.5 percent). In cases for awards, such as MVP, in which batters and pitchers directly compete, we arbitrarily double a batter’s Box-Toppers point total to compare them with pitchers. While that would give Judge 26.4 points, it would give Ohtani 29.7 points if you double the 5.0 points he earned as a batter. With the adjusted totals, Box-Toppers gives Ohtani AL MVP over Judge and over top AL pitcher Justin Verlander of the Astros (26.0 points).

Judge also had more than half of the Box-Toppers points of top AL pitcher, Justin Verlander of the Astros (26.0). In recent seasons, Box-Toppers has awarded its MVP to pitchers who have more than twice as many points as the league’s top batter. In this case, it was close, but doubling Judge’s 13.2 points gives him 26.4 points to Verlander’s 26.0.

But consider Ohtani, who finished second in AL MVP voting. Since we’re doubling Judge’s points as a batter, we should double the 5.0 points Ohtani earned as a batter, too. So doubling those points (10.0) and adding them to the points he earned as a starting pitcher (19.7), gives Ohtani an adjusted total of 29.7, more than both Judge (26.4) and Verlander (26.0).

That’s why we chose Ohtani over both Judge and Verlander for AL MVP.

National League Most Valuable Player

Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals, who ranked seventh among NL batters with 7.5 Box-Toppers points and who was not even among Box-Toppers’ 10 listed finalists for the award, was voted NL MVP by baseball writers.

Box-Toppers chose Pete Alonso of the Mets as NL MVP. He led NL batters with 14.9 Box-Toppers points, nearly twice as many as Goldschmidt, but finished eighth in NL MVP voting, receiving only one second-place vote from baseball writers.

Goldschmidt was often touted for the award because he almost won the Triple Crown by leading the NL in home runs, RBIs and batting average. But he finished the season leading none of the three Triple Crown categories. In fact, Alonso led Goldschmidt in two of those three categories—he led the NL in RBIs with 131 (Goldschmidt was second with 115) and was second in home runs with 40 (Goldschmidt was fifth with 35). Alonso trailed Goldschmidt in batting average (.293), which was sixth among NL batters. Goldschmidt hit .317, third among NL batters.

Though Goldschmidt ranked seventh among NL batters in Box-Toppers points, we would have placed him roughly 17th on an NL MVP ballot if it went that far (it only went to 10 places) because we placed several pitchers ahead of him on the ballot who had more than double his points, including NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara (21.1 points).

American League Cy Young Award

Justin Verlander of the Astros, who led all players in 2022 with 26.0 Box-Toppers points, won the American League Cy Young Award in a unanimous vote by baseball writers.

Verlander led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2022, securing the lead only on Oct. 4, the next-to-last day of the season.

Verlander passed Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani (24.7 points) for the lead that day. Ohtani finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting, behind second-place finisher Dylan Cease of the White Sox and third-place finisher Alek Manoah of the Blue Jays.

In fact, while Ohtani’s 24.7 Box-Toppers points was second overall and second among AL pitchers, he was placed in third place on Box-Toppers’ AL Cy Young ballot. That’s because he earned 5.0 of those points as a designated hitter. If we subtract his non-pitcher points from his total, that gives him 19.7 points, which is behind the 20.4 points earned by White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease, who ranks third among AL pitchers and fifth among all players.

National League Cy Young Award

Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins, who led all National League players with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, won the NL Cy Young Award in a unanimous vote by baseball writers.

Alcantara, who ranked third among all players, led NL pitchers in Box-Toppers weekly player rankings for 10 of the final 11 weeks of the season. The gap between Alcantara and the pack narrowed as the season neared the end. In fact, Giants pitcher Carlos Rodon ranked ahead in the Sept. 15 player rankings.

Rodon finished third among NL pitchers with 19.8 Box-Toppers points. He finished sixth in NL Cy Young voting.

In the final days of the season, several pitchers had the chance to snipe the lead from Alcantara, but he finished with a 0.3-point lead over second-place NL pitcher, Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers (20.8). Woodruff was the highest-ranking NL pitchers to receive no Cy Young votes.

American League Rookie of the Year

Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners, Box-Toppers’ choice for 2022 American League Rookie of the Year, was also voted winner of the honor by baseball writers.

Rodriguez earned 7.5 Box-Toppers points in 2022 (90th among all players and eighth among AL batters), which was slightly more than half the point total of the top AL rookie pitcher, Joe Ryan of the Twins (14.7).

In cases in which batters and pitchers are eligible for the same award, we give batters a generous, if arbitrary, benefit of the doubt and double their Box-Toppers point total when comparing them to pitchers. This gives Rodriguez an adjusted total of 15.0 points  which beats Ryan’s 14.7.

Though Ryan had the most Box-Toppers points among all rookies, he did not receive any votes for Rookie of the Year. Ryan still had rookie status in 2022, though he pitched five games in 2021 and earned 2.7 Box-Toppers points.

Ryan’s 14.7 Box-Toppers points was 21st among all players and 10th among AL pitchers.

National League Rookie of the Year

Braves center fielder Michael Harris II was voted National League Rookie of the Year over Box-Toppers’ choice for the award, Braves pitcher Spencer Strider.

Harris earned 3.5 Box-Toppers points in 2022 and was among Box-Toppers’ top 10-ranked rookies, but was not one of the top three Box-Toppers placed on its top rookie ballot.

Braves pitcher Spencer Strider, who finished second in baseball writers’ voting, was Box-Toppers’ choice for top NL rookie. He earned 13.4 Box-Toppers points in 2022, 27th among all players and 13th among NL pitchers.

Strider had more than twice as many Box-Toppers points as the top NL rookie batter, Nolan Gorman of the Cardinals (5.0), who we placed in second place for NL top rookie. Gorman received no votes for NL Rookie of the Year from baseball writers.

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Among those six awards, Box-Toppers leaders were three-for-six (or four-for-six, if you count Judge leading AL batters) in coinciding with baseball writers’ choices. In the past 10 seasons, Box-Toppers leaders have won an average of 2.3 of the six awards each season, doing as well as coinciding five times in 2014 and as poorly as going zero-for-six twice, in 2019 and 2021. Here is a look at each of the past 10 seasons:

  • In 2013, Box-Toppers and baseball writers picked the same winner for four of six awards.

  • In 2014, five of six.

  • In 2015, two of six.

  • In 2016, two of six.

  • In 2017, three of six.

  • In 2018, two (or three or four, depending on how you count) of six.

  • In 2019, zero of six.

  • In 2020, two of six.

  • In 2021, zero of six.

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This is the 11th time in 28 seasons of Box-Toppers tracking that Box-Toppers points leaders have won two of the major postseason awards—AL and NL Cy Young and Most Valuable Player Awards. Though we didn’t choose Judge as AL MVP, he did lead AL batters in Box-Toppers points, so we could also say Box-Toppers leaders won three of the four awards, something that’s only happened three times previously—1997, 2009 and 2013.

Since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995, at least one points leader has won at least one of the four awards in 24 of the seasons. There have been four seasons in which no Box-Toppers points leader won one of the four major awards—2003, 2012, 2019 and last season, 2021.

There have been 10 seasons in which at least one of the Box-Toppers category leaders won one of the four major postseason award. There has never been a season in which all four Box-Toppers point category leaders won all four major postseason awards.

About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.

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