Three Dodgers on awards lists
Bellinger, Kershaw and Roberts could pick up some National League hardware next week.
Kershaw, Bellinger and Roberts are finalists in three National League categories.
After a season in which the Dodgers won the most games in 64 years and came within one game of winning their first World Series in 29 years, the individual honors are about to arrive.
First baseman Cody Bellinger, pitcher Clayton Kershaw and manager Dave Roberts each was announced Monday as a finalist for the annual Baseball Writers Assn. of America awards.
Angels outfielder Mike Trout was not. For the first time in his six full seasons, Trout will not finish first or second in the voting for American League most valuable player.
Trout led the AL in on-base percentage and in slugging percentage, but he was limited to 114 games because of a thumb injury. No position player has won an MVP award with so few games in a nonstrike season, and “games played” is the only statistic voters are specifically directed to consider.
Trout also batted .231 in September, when the Angels were the last team eliminated in the AL wild-card race.
Bellinger, who set a National League rookie record by hitting 39 home runs, is expected to succeed teammate Corey Seager as rookie of the year. Seager won unanimously last year, and Bellinger might well do so this year. The other finalists: infielders Josh Bell of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Paul DeJong of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Dodgers have had a record 17 rookies of the year. Jackie Robinson was the first, in 1947, and the award since has been renamed in his honor.
Kershaw, who joined Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals as NL Cy Young Award finalists, is assured of joining Hall of Famer Greg Maddux as the only players to finish in the top five in seven consecutive seasons.
Kershaw had a record of 18-4, leading the NL in victories, winning percentage and earned-run average. The three-time Cy Young winner has been so dominant that his league-leading 2.31 ERA was his highest in five years.
He also sat out five weeks because of a back injury. Scherzer, the defending Cy Young winner, was 16-6 with a 2.51 ERA, pitching 25 more innings than Kershaw and leading the league in strikeouts and WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched).
Roberts led the Dodgers to 104 victories, the most since the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1958. He could become the first Dodgers manager to win the award in consecutive years.
However, the Dodgers also won their fifth consecutive division championship, and voters tend to reward managers of teams that outplayed their expectations.
The other finalists also came from the NL West: Bud Black, who led the Colorado Rockies from an 87-loss season to the playoffs in his first year in that job, and Torey Lovullo, who led the Arizona Diamondbacks from a 93-loss season to the playoffs in his first year in that job.
The winners of the BBWAA awards will be announced next week. The Times does not allow its writers to vote.