Box-Toppers’ points leaders for 2025 seem likely to win two of the four major postseason awards.
Box-Toppers postseason honors ballot
Here is a look at Box-Toppers’ ballot selections for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) 2025 postseason awards. The ballot requires votes out to 10 places for Most Valuable Player in both leagues, five for Cy Young Awards and Rookie of the Year in each league, plus three for Manager of the Year and Reliever of the Year in each league.Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2025.
| AL Most Valuable Player | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Tarik Skubal | Tigers | 22.1 |
| 2 | Garrett Crochet | Red Sox | 19.8 |
| 3 | George Springer | Blue Jays | 9.7 |
| 4 | José Ramírez | Guardians | 9.5 |
| 5 | Salvador Perez | Royals | 9.5 |
| 6 | Riley Greene | Tigers | 9.0 |
| 7 | Junior Caminero | Rays | 9.0 |
| 8 | Bryan Woo | Mariners | 18.0 |
| 9 | Wilyer Abreu | Red Sox | 8.5 |
| 10 | Lenyn Sosa | White Sox | 8.5 |
| NL Most Valuable Player | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kyle Schwarber | Phillies | 12.0 |
| 2 | Christian Yelich | Brewers | 11.2 |
| 3 | Paul Skenes | Pirates | 21.1 |
| 4 | Zack Wheeler | Phillies | 20.1 |
| 5 | Manny Machado | Padres | 9.5 |
| 6 | Seiya Suzuki | Cubs | 9.5 |
| 7 | Pete Crow-Armstrong | Cubs | 9.5 |
| 8 | Nick Pivetta | Padres | 17.7 |
| 9 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Dodgers | 17.7 |
| 10 | Jesús Luzardo | Phillies | 17.4 |
| AL Cy Young | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Tarik Skubal | Tigers | 22.1 |
| 2 | Garrett Crochet | Red Sox | 19.8 |
| 3 | Bryan Woo | Mariners | 18.0 |
| 4 | Luis Castillo | Mariners | 16.1 |
| 5 | Max Fried | Yankees | 14.4 |
| NL Cy Young | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Paul Skenes | Pirates | 21.1 |
| 2 | Zack Wheeler | Phillies | 20.1 |
| 3 | Nick Pivetta | Padres | 17.7 |
| 4 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Dodgers | 17.7 |
| 5 | Jesús Luzardo | Phillies | 17.4 |
| AL Rookie of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Jacob Lopez | Athletics | 11.4 |
| 2 | Kyle Teel | White Sox | 5.0 |
| 3 | Will Warren | Yankees | 9.4 |
| 4 | Nick Kurtz | Athletics | 4.5 |
| 5 | Colson Montgomery | White Sox | 4.5 |
| NL Rookie of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Drake Baldwin | Braves | 6.5 |
| 2 | Agustín Ramírez | Marlins | 6.0 |
| 3 | Isaac Collins | Brewers | 5.5 |
| 4 | Cade Horton | Cubs | 9.7 |
| 5 | Nolan McLean | Mets | 7.7 |
| AL Manager of the Year | |||
| Manager | Team | Team BTP | |
| 1 | Aaron Boone | Yankees | 127.1 |
| 2 | Bruce Bochy | Rangers | 123.6 |
| 3 | Dan Wilson | Mariners | 117.6 |
| NL Manager of the Year | |||
| Manager | Team | Team BTP | |
| 1 | Rob Thompson | Phillies | 131.4 |
| 2 | Mike Shildt | Padres | 118.6 |
| 3 | Craig Counsell | Cubs | 117.6 |
| AL Reliever of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Jeff Hoffman | Blue Jays | 8.0 |
| 2 | Josh Hader | Astros | 7.0 |
| 3 | David Bednar | Yankees | 7.0 |
| NL Reliever of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Edwin Díaz | Mets | 8.0 |
| 2 | Mason Miller | Padres | 7.0 |
| 3 | Robert Suarez | Padres | 6.0 |
For example, in rankings for NL MVP, Kyle Schwarber ranks first with 12.0 points even though several pitchers (notably Paul Skenes of the Pirates with 21.1) have more points. Box-Toppers arbitrarily doubles batters’ point totals in figuring these rankings, which would give Schwarber 24.0 points, ahead of Skenes’ 21.1.
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.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, who led all players with 22.1 Box-Toppers points, seems likely to win the American League Cy Young Award. Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, who led National League pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, is likely to win the NL Cy Young Award.
However, the Most Valuable Player award favorites did not perform well in the Box-Toppers metric in 2025 and were not Box-Toppers’ choices for AL or NL MVP. Aaron Judge of the Yankees, Cal Raleigh of the Mariners and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers all hit more than 50 home runs, racking up impressive statistics. However, all three were comparatively rarely the player who contributed most to their team’s wins. (For more, see previous post: Why Judge, Raleigh, Ohtani don’t appear on Box-Toppers’ 2025 MVP ballots.)
Box-Toppers stats are used in casting my vote in Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) balloting, completed at the end of the regular season, before the start of postseason play. The internet baseball writers group will tabulate results from member writers and announce them in the coming days.
While the IBWAA voting is not the same as the official voting for the awards by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), the results are often similar.
Here is an overview of Box-Toppers choices for postseason honors submitted in IBWAA balloting, followed by a more in-depth look at each award:
American League Cy Young—Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal is a favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award for top pitcher. Skubal led all players with 22.1 Box-Toppers points. He also won the AL Cy Young Award in 2024 when he led AL pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, second among all players.
American League Most Valuable Player—Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, 22.1 Box-Toppers points, first overall. Skubal had more than twice as many Box-Toppers points as George Springer of the Blue Jays, who led AL batters with 9.7 points. Pitchers have won both the Cy Young and MVP awards in recent seasons—Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers did it in 2014 and Justin Verlander of the Tigers did it in 2011.
National League Cy Young—Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes led NL pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, second overall.
National League Most Valuable Player—Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies led NL batters with 12.0 Box-Toppers points.
American League Rookie of the Year—Athletics pitcher Jacob Lopez, who led AL rookies with 11.4 Box-Toppers points.
National League Rookie of the Year—Drake Baldwin of the Braves, who led NL rookie batters with 6.5 Box-Toppers points.
American League Manager of the Year—Aaron Boone, whose Yankees led AL teams with 127.1 combined Box-Toppers points.
National League Manager of the Year—Rob Thompson, whose Phillies led all teams with 131.4 combined Box-Toppers points.
American League Reliever of the Year—Jeff Hoffman of the Blue Jays, who led AL closing pitchers with 8.0 Box-Toppers points.
National League Reliever of the Year—Edwin Díaz of the Mets, who led NL closing pitchers with 8.0 Box-Toppers points.
American League Cy Young Award
Tarik Skubal, Tigers
Skubal led all players in 2025 with 22.1 Box-Toppers points. He led AL pitchers ahead of second-place Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox (19.8).
Skubal won the award in 2024 (when he also led AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points) and is the favorite to repeat in 2025.
Skubal led the AL in earned run average (2.21) and led all pitchers with a 0.89 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched). He ranked second among AL pitchers in strikeouts (241) behind Crochet (255).
He won Player of the Game honors 15 times during the regular season, including winning overall Player of the Day honors five times and AL Player of the Day honors three times. He earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point for each Player of the Game honor, a bonus 1.0 point for each Player of the Day honor and a bonus 0.7 points for each league Player of the Day honor.
American League Most Valuable Player
Tarik Skubal, Tigers
The AL MVP ballot includes spots for a voter’s top 10 players. Judge and Raleigh, who will be first or second choice on every other ballot, were not among the Box-Toppers’ top 10 AL MVP choices.
Judge earned 6.5 Box-Toppers points in 2025, 20th among AL batters and Raleigh earned 6.0 Box-Toppers points, 24th among AL batters.
Box-Toppers’ top-ranked AL batter George Springer, who earned 9.7 Box-Toppers points in 2025, the lowest total to lead any category since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995, only ranks third on our AL MVP ballot, behind two pitchers.
Our choice for AL MVP is a pitcher, Tarik Skubal of the Tigers, who led all players with 22.1 Box-Toppers points. In cases in which the league’s top pitcher has more than twice as many Box-Toppers points as the league’s top batter, I choose pitchers for the award over batters. In the 31 seasons of Box-Toppers tracking (which began in 1995), there have been 62 instances of MVP voting, including this season’s. This is the 12th instance of a league top pitcher having more than double the points of a league top batter. (Here are the other 11 instances).
Second-ranked AL pitcher, Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox, is also second on the Box-Toppers’ AL MVP ballot. His 19.8 Box-Toppers points in 2025 are also more than twice as many points as top-ranked AL batter Springer (9.7).
Our AL MVP ballot also includes a third pitcher among the 10 total players—Bryan Woo of the Mariners, whose 18.0 Box-Toppers points were third among AL pitchers in 2025, placing him eighth on our AL MVP ballot. Woo’s performance in 2025 is a key reason teammate Cal Raleigh did not earn more Box-Toppers points in 2025. Woo won Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in four Mariners wins in which Raleigh recorded a +3.0 Box-Toppers game score or better. Had Raleigh earned Player of the Game honors in those games in which he played well but was outperformed by Woo, he likely would have had enough Box-Toppers points to lead AL batters and be the Box-Toppers’ AL MVP choice.
National League Cy Young Award
Paul Skenes, Pirates
Skenes led NL pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, finishing the season second overall.
While Skenes is likely seen as the runaway winner of the award this season, it was a very tight race that he barely won in Box-Toppers standings. In addition, the player he passed in his final start of the season to rise to first place among NL pitchers—Zack Wheeler of the Phillies—will likely receive few, if any, votes for the NL Cy Young Award, even though he led NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points most of the season.
Wheeler finished the season with 20.1 Box-Toppers points, second among NL pitchers and second on Box-Toppers’ NL Cy Young ballot. He led NL pitchers from May 11 until Skenes passed him Sept. 24. Wheeler last earned Player of the Game honors Aug. 10, went on the injured list Aug. 16 with a diagnosed blood clot and was ruled out for the season on Aug. 23 with a diagnosis of venous thoracic outlet syndrome.
Despite missing more than a month of the season, it appeared Wheeler’s 20.1 Box-Toppers point total might be enough to lead NL pitchers for the season. Even though Skenes led the NL in earned run average (1.97) and was tied for second in strikeouts (216), he pitched for a Pirates team that often didn’t give him run support. There were four times in 2025 that Skenes recorded a Box-Toppers game score of +10.0 or better, in which he did not earn Player of the Game honors because the Pirates lost.
Even in the midst of Skenes’ final start on Sept. 24 against the Reds, it appeared as if the Pirates might lose, which would have meant Wheeler would finish the season first among NL pitchers, though he had been out since mid-August.
Skenes pitched six scoreless innings, striking out seven, recording a +9.0 Box-Toppers game score and was seemingly en route to easily securing Player of the Game honors. But the Reds tied the game in the bottom of the ninth inning after Skenes exited. The Pirates, however, scored a run to win in 11 innings.
Despite being one of the season’s best pitchers, Cy Young voters will likely disregard Wheeler’s performance this season because of the season-ending injury. He was not among the three finalists for the NL Cy Young Award.
Skenes earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 16 times in 2025, including winning overall Player of the Day honors three times (worth 2.0 total points) and NL Player of the Day honors three times (worth 1.7 total points). Wheeler earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 15 times in 2025, one fewer than Skenes.
National League Most Valuable Player
Kyle Schwarber, Phillies
Schwarber led NL batters with 12.0 Box-Toppers points, 24th among all players.
Unlike in the American League, no pitcher had more than twice as many points as Schwarber (Paul Skenes of the Pirates led NL pitchers with 21.1), giving Schwarber the clear path to being Box-Toppers’ NL MVP choice.
Schwarber led all players in 2025 with 132 runs batted in. He also led the NL in home runs with 56.
But while he is one of three finalists for NL MVP, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, the 2024 NL MVP, is considered the favorite to repeat.
But Ohtani only had 5.5 Box-Toppers points in 2025, 27th among NL batters. Schwarber won Player of the Game honors 10 times in 2025 compared to Ohtani’s five. Ohtani is not even among the 10 players on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot.
Second on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot is Christian Yelich of the Brewers, who had 11.2 Box-Toppers points. Only two batters reached 10 Box-Toppers points in 2025—Schwarber and Yelich—the fewest number of batters to reach that milestone in a regular-length season since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. The previous low (in a non-pandemic season) was four in 2022.
Our ballot also includes five pitchers, led by Paul Skenes of the Pirates, in the third-place spot. All five pitchers on the ballot are also Box-Toppers’ top five choices for the NL Cy Young Award.
Pitchers take up so many spots on a ballot intended for batters because batters had another down season in Box-Toppers points. Batters won only 38.7 percent of all Box-Toppers points awarded in 2025, the third-lowest share in a season since tracking began in 1995 (pitchers won 61.3 percent of all points). It is the sixth season that batters’ share has been below 40 percent, and all have happened in 2014 or later. While batters have struggled to reach parity with pitchers in recent seasons, it wasn’t always this way: From 1995 to 2009, batters generally won half or more of all Box-Toppers points each season. But their share of points dropped precipitously after 2009.
Rookies of the Year
AL—Jacob Lopez, Athletics
NL—Drake Baldwin, Braves
Lopez led AL rookies with 11.4 Box-Toppers points, 32nd among all players and 18th among AL pitchers.
Baldwin led NL rookie batters with 6.5 Box-Toppers points, 133rd among all players and 17th among NL batters.
Lopez had more than twice as many Box-Toppers points as the top rookie AL batter, Kyle Teel of the White Sox (5.0), who is second on Box-Toppers’ AL top rookie ballot. Teel is just ahead of the next AL rookie on Box-Toppers’ ballot, Yankees pitcher Will Warren, who earned 9.4 Box-Toppers points in 2025. In cases in which batters and pitchers compete for the same award, we arbitrarily double batters’ totals to make them competitive with pitchers, giving Teel an adjusted 10.0 points, ahead of Warren’s 9.4.
A favorite to win the award, Nick Kurtz of the Athletics, ranks fourth on Box-Toppers’ AL top rookie ballot. He earned 4.5 Box-Toppers points in 2025.
Baldwin is a favorite to win the NL rookie award. He is one of three batters among Box-Toppers’ top five NL rookie leaders. Box-Toppers’ NL top rookie pitcher is Cade Horton of the Cubs (9.7 Box-Toppers points). While Horton has more points than Baldwin, he has fewer than twice as many points, which places him fourth on Box-Toppers’ NL top rookie ballot.
Managers of the Year
AL—Aaron Boone, Yankees
NL—Rob Thompson, Phillies
Our criteria for this award is straightforward: Which teams had the most Box-Toppers points. The Yankees led AL teams with 127.1 accumulated Box-Toppers points, so Boone is first on Box-Toppers’ AL managers ballot. The Phillies led NL teams with 131.4 Box-Toppers points, first overall, and so Thompson is first on Box-Toppers’ NL managers ballot.
Relievers of the Year
AL—Jeff Hoffman, Blue Jays
NL—Edwin Díaz, Mets
Hoffman, who led AL closers with 8.0 Box-Toppers points, is our choice for AL Reliever of the Year.
Díaz, who led NL closers with 8.0 Box-Toppers points, is our choice for NL Reliever of the Year.
Hoffman was third in saves in the AL with 33. Carlos Estévez of the Royals, who led AL closers with 42 saves, earned 5.0 Box-Toppers points in 2025, seventh among AL closers and not among Box-Toppers’ ballot for the three top AL relievers.
Díaz was fifth in saves in the NL with 28. Robert Suarez of the Padres, who led NL closers with 40 saves, earned 6.0 Box-Toppers poitns in 2025, third among NL closers and third on Box-Toppers’ ballot for top NL relievers.
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These are only Box-Toppers’ choices for awards. The collective IBWAA voting results will be announced soon. The “official” Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) awards will be announced the week of Nov. 10.
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. (No Box-Toppers points are awarded in postseason games.)
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