MLB fans on list of AL Cy Young finalists: "Ohtani or Shane not being top 3 is a f***ing war crime", "Alek Manoah is a CY Young candidate over McClanahan? LMAO"

The MLB season is over and the Houston Astros have won it all. For MLB fans, the next topic of contention is the year-end awards. The league recently posted their finalists for the Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year and Cy Young Award finalists for both leagues.

For the American League, reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Yordan Alvarez were nominated for the MVP award.

Julio Rodriguez, Steven Kwan and Adley Rutschman were nominated for Rookie of the Year. Terry Francona, Scott Servais and Brandon Hyde were nominated for Manager of the Year. While Dylan Cease, Justin Verlander, and Alek Manoah were nominated for the Cy Young Award.

The biggest topic of debate right now is with the Cy Young finalists. With a number of talented arms in the American League, many fans felt that Shohei Ohtani and Shane McClanahan deserved to be on the list as well.

Other names that popped up from the conversation include Houston Astros quality-start-machine Framber Valdez and 2020 AL Cy Young Awardee Shane Bieber, who has quietly been an anchor in the Cleveland Guardians' starting rotation.

These hotly-contested topics aren't rare amongst fans as this happens every year, especially when a player they think is deserving is snubbed by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the baseball body that nominates and selects players for the year-end awards.

After MLB, comes WBC

After a long and arduous Major League Baseball season, the focus now shifts to the World Baseball Classic. The quadrennial event that was last held in 2017 was postponed in 2021 and will now start on March 8, 2023.

Several MLB stars have expressed their desire to play in the event that includes future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera for his native Venezuela, Nolan Arenado for the United States, and possibly Shohei Ohtani for Japan.

For more news and updates about the World Baseball Classic, kindly follow Sportskeeda Baseball and never miss out!

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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