The first wave of honors in the baseball awards season were announced on Thursday, as Baseball Digest revealed the winners of its Player, Pitcher and Relief Pitcher of the Year, with Mookie Betts, Jacob deGrom and Blake Treinen receiving each, respectively.
deGrom received all 15 first-place votes from the blue-ribbon committee for Thursday's honor. It's also the first tangible case made for his candidacy for the National League Cy Young Award, for which voting was completed earlier this week. That honor will be presented in November.
deGrom is considered the favorite for the NL's most distinguished pitching award, and his case has been bolstered by more non-traditional stats and contexts than perhaps ever before.