In four of the six major postseason player awards, the 2025 Box-Toppers points leader for each honor is among the finalists announced by baseball writers.
Award finalists
Here are finalists for the Cy Young, Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards to be given this month, as named by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Players are listed with their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2025 and their Box-Toppers rank in their award category.| Cy Young finalists | |||
| AL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank* |
| Tarik Skubal | Tigers | 22.1 | 1 |
| Garrett Crochet | Red Sox | 19.8 | 2 |
| Hunter Brown | Astros | 13.4 | 9 |
| NL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank* |
| Paul Skenes | Pirates | 20.1 | 1 |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Dodgers | 17.7 | 4 |
| Cristopher Sánchez | Phillies | 15.4 | 7 |
| Most Valuable Player Awards finalists | |||
| AL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank* |
| José Ramírez | Guardians | 9.5 | 2 |
| Aaron Judge | Yankees | 6.5 | 20 |
| Cal Raleigh | Mariners | 6.0 | 24 |
| **George Springer | Blue Jays | 9.7 | 1 |
| NL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank* |
| Kyle Schwarber | Phillies | 12.0 | 1 |
| Juan Soto | Mets | 7.0 | 12 |
| Shohei Ohtani | Dodgers | 5.5 | 27 |
| Rookie of the Year finalists | |||
| AL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank† |
| Nick Kurtz | Athletics | 4.5 | 12 |
| Jacob Wilson | Athletics | 4.0 | 14 |
| Roman Anthony | Red Sox | 2.0 | 30 |
| **Jacob Lopez | Athletics | 11.4 | 1 |
| NL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank† |
| Cade Horton | Cubs | 9.7 | 1 |
| Drake Baldwin | Braves | 6.5 | 3 |
| Caleb Durbin | Brewers | 0.0 | -§ |
* 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.
§ Caleb Durbin has yet to make his Box-Toppers debut by earning his first career Player of the Game honor and so has 0.0 Box-Toppers points and no ranking. Durbin played in 136 games in his 2025 rookie season.
† Rookie of the Year candidates are ranked among their league’s rookies in Box‑Toppers points. However, for awards in which batters and pitchers directly compete, such as Rookie of the Year, we adjust the batters’ total (doubling it) to make them more competitive.
Here are the four awards for which Box-Toppers top-ranked players are among the finalists:
American League Cy Young Award—Tarik Skubal of the Tigers.
National League Cy Young Award—Paul Skenes of the Pirates.
NL Most Valuable Player—Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies.
NL Rookie of the Year—Drake Baldwin of the Braves.
There are two awards in which the Box-Toppers leader is not among the finalists: AL Most Valuable Player and AL Rookie of the Year.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America, which votes on the award winners, announced the finalists, the top three in voting for each award. In addition to Cy Young and MVP awards, the group also announced the top three finalists for Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year in each league. Rookie of the Year Awards will be given Monday, Nov. 10, Manager of the Year on Tuesday, Nov. 11, Cy Young Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 12 and MVP Awards on Thursday, Nov. 13.
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.
AL Cy Young
Skubal, our choice for the award, led all players with 22.1 Box-Toppers points.
The other finalists:
Red Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet, 19.8 Box-Toppers points, second among AL pitchers.
Astros pitcher Hunter Brown, 13.4 points, ninth among AL pitchers.
NL Cy Young
Skenes, our choice for the award, led NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points with 20.1, second among all players.
The other finalists:
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 17.7 Box-Toppers points, fourth among NL pitchers.
Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sánchez, 15.4 points, seventh among NL pitchers.
AL MVP
George Springer of the Blue Jays, who led AL batters with 9.7 Box-Toppers points in 2025, is not among the three finalists for the award. But despite his lead, Springer is also not Box-Toppers’ choice for AL MVP—that goes to Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, whose 22.1 Box-Toppers points is more than double Springer’s 9.7 total. (Skubal is also not among the three finalists for AL MVP.)
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).
But the AL MVP finalists are:
José Ramírez of the Guardians, 9.5 Box-Toppers points, second among AL batters.
Aaron Judge of the Yankees, 6.5 Box-Toppers points, 20th among AL batters.
Cal Raleigh of the Mariners, 6.0 Box-Toppers points, 24th among AL batters.
Judge and Raleigh are favorites for the award, but did not perform well in the Box-Toppers metric in 2025. While they both hit more than 50 home runs and racked up impressive statistics, they 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.)
NL MVP
Schwarber, our choice for the award, led NL batters with 12.0 Box-Toppers points.
The other finalists:
Juan Soto of the Mets, 7.0 Box-Toppers points, 12th among NL batters.
Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, 5.5 Box-Toppers points, 27th among NL batters.
While Schwarber is a finalist, Ohtani is the favorite for the award. However, Ohtani did not fare well in Box-Toppers in 2025 after leading NL batters in 2024 with 11.0 Box-Toppers points. Despite hitting 55 home runs and returning to pitch in 2025, Ohtani only earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors five times in 2025—three times for batting and twice for pitching. Like Judge and Raleigh in the American League, Ohtani frequently did not win Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in team wins because they were beaten by teammates who performed better in games.
AL Rookie of the Year
Athletics pitcher Jacob Lopez, who led AL rookies with 11.4 Box-Toppers points, is not among the three finalists for the award.
The finalists are:
Nick Kurtz of the Athletics, 4.5 Box-Toppers points, 12th among AL rookies.
Jacob Wilson of the Athletics, 4.0 Box-Toppers points, 14th among AL rookies.
Roman Anthony of the Red Sox, 2.0 Box-Toppers points, 30th among AL rookies.
Kurtz is a favorite to win the award, but has less than half as many 2025 Box-Toppers points as Lopez. In cases in which batters and pitchers compete for the same award, we arbitrarily double batters’ totals to make them competitive with pitchers. This would give Kurtz 9.0 points, still less than Lopez’s 11.4.
NL Rookie of the Year
Cubs pitcher Cade Horton led NL rookies with 9.7 Box-Toppers points and is a finalist for the award. However, Box-Toppers’ choice for the award is another finalist, Drake Baldwin of the Braves, whose 6.5 Box-Toppers points is third among NL rookies.
In cases in which batters and pitchers compete for the same award, we arbitrarily double batters’ totals to make them competitive with pitchers, giving Baldwin an adjusted total of 13.0, ahead of Horton’s 9.7.
The other finalist for the award, Caleb Durbin of the Brewers, has yet to earn his first career Player of the Game honor and so has 0.0 Box-Toppers points and no Box-Toppers ranking. Durbin played 136 games in 2025.
Box-Toppers votes in internet writers ballot
Box-Toppers stats are used in casting a ballot in Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) voting, completed at the end of the regular season, prior to the start of postseason play. The internet baseball writers group will tabulate results from member writers and announce them this month.
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.
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