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The Lens · Award Races

The Score Says Alvarez, Misiorowski and Crow-Armstrong

SEPTEMBER 17, 2026

Our MVP, Cy Young and Rookie Scores — who leads each race, and by how much.

With the season winding down, our 0-100 award Scores have settled into some clear front-runners. Yordan Alvarez and Pete Crow-Armstrong pace the MVP boards; Jacob Misiorowski and Cam Schlittler lead for Cy Young. The Rookie races are the tightest of the lot.

MVP watch

Our MVP Score (0–100) — each hitter’s OPS, on-base, power, run production and playing time graded against the league average, then blended. Higher is better.

In the AL, Yordan Alvarez sits first at 83.2 on the strength of a 1.022 OPS and 39 homers, comfortably ahead of Ben Rice (77.6) and Junior Caminero (76.4), who has given Tampa Bay far more at third base than the .791 they'd averaged there in recent years. The NL is a touch closer up top: Pete Crow-Armstrong leads at 81.3 with 44 homers and 105 RBI, and he's only getting hotter with a 1.071 OPS over the last 30 days. Kyle Schwarber (75.9) and Rafael Devers (75.3) are locked together behind him.

American League
National League

Cy Young watch

Our Cy Young Score (0–100) — ERA, WHIP, strikeout and walk rates, workload and quality starts, each graded against the league average, then blended. Higher is better.

Jacob Misiorowski owns the NL board at 86.6, and the peripherals back it: a 1.89 ERA, a 0.81 WHIP and 243 strikeouts. Chris Sale (82.7) keeps it honest for Atlanta. The AL is Cam Schlittler's to lose at 83.3, a 1.95 ERA with 228 punchouts and a scorching 0.83 mark over his last month, well clear of Drew Rasmussen (74.2).

American League
National League

Rookie of the Year watch

Our Rookie Score (0–100) — the MVP and Cy Young engines applied to first-year players, hitters and pitchers ranked on one scale. Higher is better.

Both Rookie races are wide open. In the AL, Cleveland's Parker Messick leads at 70.6 on a 2.57 ERA, with Kazuma Okamoto (69.4) and Munetaka Murakami (69.1) a step back. The NL front-runner is Cincinnati's Sal Stewart at 70.1, whose 31 homers and 108 RBI dwarf what the Reds got at first base in prior seasons, ahead of Colorado's TJ Rumfield (62.6).

American League
National League

Stats via the MLB Stats API. Colors, form scores and power rankings are Baseball Lens's own.