Washington Nationals: 3 Nats have inside track on awards
By Brian Foley
As we are now at the All-Star Break, which Washington Nationals have the best chance to take home awards this fall?
The Washington Nationals continue to roll as the rest of the NL East suffers through mediocrity. Wash, rinse, repeat. The lack of day-to-day storylines has left fans looking towards the end of the year when things really matter.
I’m not talking about the playoffs; I’m talking about award season.
Even though this is only the team’s 13th season in D.C., Washington already has quite a few trophies on its shelves at Nationals Park. Bryce Harper has already captured the 2012 N.L. Rookie of the Year and the 2015 N.L. MVP. Max Scherzer brought home the 2016 N.L. Cy Young award. The Nats already have 12 Silver Sluggers in team history, with more presumably on the way this year. Chad Cordero even won the N.L. Relief Man award in the team’s debut season in 2005.
This is an organization that has had its fair share of great individual performances. Just look at a team like the Minnesota Twins. They have not had a player win an award since Josh Willingham in 2013.
Nearly 90 games into 2017, we now have an appropriate sample size to project awards races for this season, and three Nationals are the favorites to bring home some hardware – the N.L Cy Young, the N.L. MVP, and the Comeback Player of the Year.
First, let’s start with the Cy Young