The local chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America has announced the three team awards that they vote on for the Cincinnati Reds at the end of every season. They submit votes for the Team MVP, the Most Outstanding Pitcher Awards, and the Good Guy Award.
The Ernie Lombardi Team MVP Award feels like it should have been very obvious. And it seems like the writers voted for who most would have voted for – Elly De La Cruz. The shortstop played in 160 of the 162 games for the Reds on the year and he led the team’s offense in runs (105), hits (160), doubles (36), triples (10), home runs (25), steals (67), slugging percentage (.471), and OPS (.809). He led the team in fWAR (6.4) and was second in bWAR (5.2). Along with Hunter Greene, he was one of Cincinnati’s two All-Stars in 2024.
The Johnny Vander Meer Most Outstanding Pitcher Award was probably a bit closer of a vote. The options here probably came down to Hunter Greene and Nick Martinez. Greene led the Reds in pitching WAR (6.3 bWAR and 3.8 fWAR), while Martinez was second (4.0 bWAR and 3.5 fWAR). Greene threw eight more innings and had a lower ERA. Martinez worked in multiple roles and was on the field all season long, while Greene missed six weeks on the injured list. The writers wound up giving more votes to Martinez, who will take home the plaque/trophy/certificate (I don’t know what they actually present the winners with).
Martinez threw 142.1 innings in 16 starts and 26 relief appearances during the year. He went 10-7 with a 3.10 ERA (142 ERA+). During the season he struck out 116 batters and had just 18 walks. His strikeout to walk ratio of 6.44-to-1 set a franchise record for pitchers with at least 140 innings in a season, obliterating the previous record that was held by Joe Nuxhall’s 1963 season where he had a 4.33-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio.
The Joe Nuxhall Good Guy Award went to Luke Maile. It’s impossible to put stats to this one unless he was constantly providing donuts and the like to the media and someone kept count.
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