The 2018 All-Star festivities are in the rear-view mirror and the regular season resumes in earnest on Friday -- the Cubs and Cardinals are playing a makeup game Thursday -- and, over the next few weeks and months, the various postseason and awards races will be decided. The upcoming trade deadline may help decide those races.

Since we are at the traditional midpoint of the regular season, this is as good a time as any to step back and hand out some midseason awards. Here is who our CBS Sports MLB experts would pick for each of the four major American League awards at this point in time.

Most Valuable Player

The Red Sox have two AL MVP candidates in J.D. Martinez and Mookie Betts. USATSI

R.J. Anderson: Mookie Betts, Red Sox. There are reasonable arguments to be made for Mike Trout and/or Jose Ramirez instead. Betts gets the nod because he's been baseball's top player on a rate basis. The biggest (only?) knock against him is that he's received about 100 fewer plate appearances due to injury.

Mike Axisa: Mike Trout, Angels. While I understand why some MVP voters prefer players from contending teams, I've never liked the idea of letting the quality of a player's teammates determine his MVP candidacy. Trout is, once again, the best player in baseball. He leads all players in on-base percentage, he's on pace for 40 homers, he's walked more than he's struck out, he's stealing bags and running the bases at a high level, and he's playing great defense at a premium up-the-middle position. What more could he do? It's not Trout's fault the Angels have faded out of the postseason. Mookie Betts and Jose Ramirez have very strong MVP cases. I consider Trout a cut above.

Jonah Keri (via CBS Sports HQ): Mike Trout, Angels. If you want to pick Betts, that's fine. He leads the league in batting average, he leads the league in park adjusted offense, in slugging percentage, all that stuff. Betts was on the DL though, so he did miss (a little more than two weeks). So if we're trying to figure it out, I would say if Betts had been playing everyday, he would be my guy. Because he hasn't, Trout by like thatmuch over Jose Ramirez. It's so, so close.

Dayn Perry: Mookie Betts, Red Sox. Very tough call among Betts, Mike Trout, and Jose Ramirez. Trout was the runaway leader for a long time, but the gap has been whittled down recently. When talking about value-based, backward-looking awards like the MVP, I think it's appropriate to look at clutch performance, and Betts on that front has been better than Trout or Ramirez this season. That's the tiebreaker for me. As for his other merits, Betts leads the majors in OPS and OPS+, he's a standout right fielder (and right field in Fenway is a tough gig), he's 18 for 20 in steals, and he's hit into just three double plays. Again, very close call, but I lean Betts at the moment.

Matt Snyder: Mookie Betts, Red Sox. This is a ridiculously crowded field. I think there are six AL players who I would pick over any NL player right now. Mookie is hitting .359 with a near-.700 slugging percentage, 18 stolen bases, more walks than strikeouts and good defense. He's just been dominating nearly every facet of the game this season.

Cy Young Award

Chris Sale is our near unanimous AL Cy Young pick. USATSI

Anderson: Chris Sale, Red Sox. It seems like every year we wonder if this'll be the season Sale wins his first Cy Young award. If the season ended today, the answer would be yes. He has the best ERA and FIP in the AL.

Axisa: Chris Sale, Red Sox. Very close race for the AL Cy Young award. Justin Verlander, Luis Severino, Trevor Bauer, Corey Kluber, and Blake Snell all deserve consideration. Sale gets the nod here because he leads the league in ERA (barely) and strikeouts (by a lot), and is top three in WHIP and K/BB ratio. Also, it's just the consistent excellence. Only twice has Sale allowed more than three runs in a start this season, and he leads the league with 13 starts with no more than one earned run allowed.

Keri (via CBS Sports HQ): Trevor Bauer, Indians. He's got an ERA that is .01 behind Chris Sale, the presumptive Cy Young frontrunner. He's actually pitching more innings per start than Sale. He's going deeper into games and his ERA is not a fluke. The strikeout rate is there, the walk rate is there, the home run rate is there. He just snuck up on us, pitching really well over and over.

Perry: Chris Sale, Red Sox. For me, this is presently a race among Sale, Luis Severino, and Trevor Bauer. I lean Sale because he leads the AL in ERA despite being a lefty who pitches his home games in Fenway, and he leads the majors in strikeouts and FIP while ranking a strong fourth in the AL in innings. Just twice in 20 starts this season has he allowed more than three runs.

Snyder: Chris Sale, Red Sox. He leads the AL in ERA and strikeouts while he's second in WHIP. There are definitely worthy considerations, but Sale is the clear frontrunner for me.

Rookie of the Year Award

Shohei Ohtani or Gleyber Torres for AL Rookie of the Year? USATSI

Anderson: Shohei Ohtani, Angels. This really comes down to how do you weigh Ohtani as a singular? Ohtani has outhit Gleyber Torres, a perfectly reasonable and deserving pick in his own right, in roughly 100 fewer plate appearances according to park-adjusted stats. He's also thrown about 50 high-quality innings. Everyone is going to value this differently, but that's fine.

Axisa: Gleyber Torres, Yankees. Shohei Ohtani's injury kind of took the fun out of this one. The injury will prevent him from pitching for the foreseeable future, possibly the rest of the season, meaning Ohtani is essentially a DH now. A good one, but still a DH. Torres has similar offensive numbers to Ohtani and he's doing it as an above-average fielding second baseman. A healthy Ohtani would did the two-way thing all season would be a runaway Rookie of the Year winner in my opinion. Probably an MVP candidate as well.

Keri (via CBS Sports HQ): Gleyber Torres, Yankees. He has missed some time both because he wasn't up at the beginning at the season and because he got hurt, but you just look at his impact on a per at-bat basis, and he's been great. He's become a Baby Bomber right away. It's such an interesting case story too. We knew that Gleyber Torres could hit, that he could hit for contact and smack the ball into the gaps. He's one of several players who've come up and frankly they've hit for a lot more power than we thought.

Perry: Gleyber Torres, Yankees. A fully healthy Shohei Ohtani probably makes this a tight race, but that's not the 2018 reality. As for Torres, he's a capable defensive second baseman who's batting .294/.350/.555 with 15 home runs in 63 games. Not a tough call.

Snyder: Gleyber Torres, Yankees. He's hitting for average, getting on base, has 15 homers in 63 games and already made his first All-Star team. All roads are headed this way.

Manager of the Year Award

The Mariners and Scott Servais are poised to end the longest postseason drought in baseball. USATSI

Anderson: Scott Servais, Mariners. The trope is that these awards always go to either the managers of the best teams or the managers of the surprise teams. In this case, subverting the trope isn't worth the effort.

Axisa: Kevin Cash, Rays. The Rays aren't going to the postseason because they're stuck in a division with two powerhouses, but they are currently two games over .500 with the eighth lowest team ERA in baseball despite having like 2 1/2 starting pitchers. Since adopting the "opener" on May 19th, the Rays have a 3.14 ERA in 53 games. Cash has expertly mixed and matched his pitching staff and, just as importantly, he's gotten his players to buy in. He's done a wonderful job helping this team keep its head above water despite the ongoing tear down (Denard Span and Alex Colome were traded away in May, remember).

Perry: Scott Servais, Mariners. Servais has the M's in position to end MLB's longest current playoff drought, and he's done it despite upheavals, injuries, and a home in what's probably baseball's toughest division. Bob Melvin of the A's also gets some consideration.

Snyder: Scott Servais, Mariners: As things stand, the Mariners would break the longest MLB playoff drought despite what happened with Robinson Cano, one of their most important players. Things could be shifting toward Bob Melvin, though. Stay tuned.