The pennant races aren’t the only season-long drama that unfold over the six-month baseball season. The battles for the three major player awards in each league — the Most Valuable Player, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards handed out by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America every November — also have their rises and falls, hot starts, late fades and surges and down-to-the-wire battles. I began tracking those races at SI.com in 2010 with a column called Awards Watch, and I’m very pleased to bring that column back, in a slightly altered form, here at The Athletic.



This version of Awards Watch will check in on the competition for all three awards in each league at the end of each month, starting today, with a full look at the top five contenders in all six races. Please note the rankings below are not predictions; they are standings. Those listed below are the players who would be most deserving of each award if the season ended right...