2023 MLB Awards Finalists: NL East

Photo Credits: Andrew Simon/MLB

The NL East is well represented in this years’ MLB season awards. Braves manager Brian Snitker and Marlins manager Skip Schumaker were named finalists for NL manager of the year. Switching over to players, two in the NL East were selected finalists for their respective category. The first finalist being rookie starting pitcher Kodai Senga who is one of the last three vying for NL Rookie of the Year. The second finalist is MLB superstar and Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. He was selected as one of the last three players for NL MVP after his historic season.

Brian Snitker (NL Manager of the year finalist)

Photo Credits: Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves

Led by a historic offense, Brian Snitker and the Atlanta Braves had the best record in baseball winning 104 games and clinching the NL East comfortably. Atlanta set the record for single-season slugging percentage having a team slug of .501. The Braves also matched the all-time record for home runs in a season at 307. Even with the explosive offense, Snitker did have to work around some significant injuries. The Braves had two big losses in their starting rotation, Kyle Wright and Max Fried. Wright was out most of the season with a shoulder injury, while Fried only pitched for a little over two months due to a forearm injury. Snitker will be looking for his second NL Manager of the Year award as he won in 2018 as well. The winner will be announced November 14th.

Skip Schumaker (NL Manager of the year finalist)

David Zalubowski/AP

The Marlins had their most successful full season in over a decade. In his first season with the Marlins Skip Schumaker helped the Marlins get over the hump by winning 84 games, 15 wins more than they had in 2022. In addition to the 84 wins the Marlins were able to get into the non-shortened season playoffs for the first time in 20 years. Even with the success, it wasn’t an easy season by any means. Center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr, right fielder Avisaíl García, relief pitcher Trevor Rogers, and starting pitcher Johnny Cueto all missed significant time.

The Marlins could have stop believing down the stretch as they fell to 66-67 on August 30th. Instead, they continued to battle winning series against the Phillies, Braves, Dodgers, and Brewers all in September. Unfortunately, the Marlins’ injuries didn’t stop as ace starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara suffered a UCL sprain knocking him out the last few weeks of the season. Eury Pérez also missed the last three weeks of the season after suffering SI joint inflammation. Even with all these challenges, Schumaker and the Marlins overcame and made the playoffs where their season unfortunately ended in the wildcard round.

Kodai Senga (NL Rookie of the Year Finalist)

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After a fantastic career in Japan, starting pitcher Kodai Senga made the switch to the MLB where he did not disappoint. He started off slow as he had an ERA over 4.00 in the month of April. Following the first month Senga really settled in from there on. Starting in May Senga had an ERA of 2.76 in his last 24 starts. Senga’s biggest weapon is his Ghost Fork as it led the majors in whiff percentage at 59.5%.

Throughout the year Senga also learned how best to sequence his pitches against MLB hitters. At the start of the season he would almost exclusively throw the ghost fork with two strikes. The problem with that is hitters began catching on and stopped swinging with two strikes causing an uptick in walks by Senga. To adjust Senga began using his whole pitch arsenal with two strikes to keep hitters honest and it worked brilliantly. Senga was the lone bright spot for the Mets this year, with his pitch mix he’ll only continue to get better. The winner of NL Rookie of the Year will be announced November 13th.

Ronald Acuna Jr (NL MVP Finalist)

Photo Credits: Mark J. Terrill/AP

Before the 2023 season, no player had hit 40 homers and stolen 50 bases in a season. Then right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr went out and broke history hitting 41 home runs and stealing 73 bases. He led the National League with 217 hits, 149 runs, an on-base percentage of .416, OPS of 1.012, and tallied 383 total bases. He also held a batting average of .337 and drove in 106 RBIs. He was named NL Player of the Month three times and now might add his first MVP Award to his mantle. Winner will be announced November 16th.