2024 MLB awards: Expert picks for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year as Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge win big

The 2024 Major League Baseball regular season is just about over. Sunday's slate wrapped Game 162 for 28 of 30 teams, the culmination of a six-month-long slog that ends -- for a lucky few -- with the playoffs. Those other two, the Mets and Braves, will p lay a doubleheader Monday to determine the National League wild-card race after Hurricane Helene wrecked their midweek series. But before we get to the postseason, CBS Sports is here to hand out some awards.

Is Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani , author of the first 50-50 season in MLB history , a shoo-in for National League MVP? Or does Francisco Lindor deserve hardware for carrying the Mets to a playoff berth? Did Bobby Witt Jr. do enough with the Royals to best Yankees slugger Aaron Judge ? Pirates phenom Paul Skenes seemed destined for a Rookie of the Year award after putting up a 2.07 ERA and 158 strikeouts in 126 innings and 21 starts, but Jacksons Merrill and Chourio have more than held their own in San Diego and Milwaukee, respectively. The AL East is chock full of its own candidates between Austin Wells , Luis Gil and Colton Cowser . As for the Cy Young, Tigers ace Tarik Skubal has run away with the race, although Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase brought up interesting questions about whether a reliever could win . Will Braves ace Chris Sale finally win his first Cy Young?

Here's how CBS Sports' MLB experts voted:

American League

Anderson: I think things are pretty sewn-up here. That's no disrespect to Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Juan Soto, Emmanuel Clase, or anyone else people want to throw out there for the top honors. I just have a hard time seeing Judge or Skubal being denied. Likewise, while I appreciate Dayn's Luis Gil shout for Rookie of the Year, I have to be boring and go with Cowser. That would make Baltimore the AL's first repeat ROY winners since Oakland in 2004-05.

Axisa: As good as Bobby Witt Jr. has been, Judge has been leaps and bounds better offensively, enough to overcome the gaps in baserunning and defense. After Ohtani (2021 and 2023) and Judge (2022), this is the most wide open the AL MVP race has been in some time. I don't think Witt winning would be even a little bit egregious. I just prefer Judge's overall body of work. For me, Skubal for Cy Young is the single easiest awards pick this year. Emmanuel Clase's been great, and maybe he'd deserve the Cy Young in another year, but Skubal's going to wind up leading the league in ERA and strikeouts in close to 200 innings. Workload matters to me. I want quantity and quality in my Cy Young winner. As for Cowser, the less said about the AL Rookie of the Year race, the better. Maybe Luis Gil should be the pick since he leads AL rookies in WAR (as I write this Wednesday). We're splitting hairs here though. In a down year for AL rookies, Cowser is as good a pick as anyone.

Feldman: It occurred to me the other day that I had kind of written Aaron Judge's year off as disappointing. Once you've set a new home run record, that's the bar for every future season. That's not fair. Judge has been spectacular, even as he went through a late-season home run drought. He's the best, even without a new record to his name. Skubal's easy. The only question here is if he's unanimous or if some brave writer wants to start reliever discourse and vote for Emmanuel Clase. I'm not writing about the rookies. You can't make me.

Perry: Judge put up otherworldly offensive numbers as a primary center fielder. Bobby Witt Jr. has a case for sure, but Judge's OPS+ of well more than 200 is too much to ignore. As great as Emmanuel Clase has been in high-leverage spots, it's not enough to overcome Skubal's dominance across almost 200 innings. The RoY is a coin-flip for me. Cowser's bat was quite good but not truly great by the standards of corner outfielders. Gil it is.

Snyder: Unfortunately, it doesn't really seem like there's a ton to discuss this season. Bobby Witt Jr. is having a year that would win MVP most times out, but he's matched up against another Herculean Judge season. I've discussed before that I think it's possible for a totally dominant reliever to be considered for the top slot in Cy Young voting and if Tarik Skubal didn't exist this season, maybe this would be the time for Emmanuel Clase, but Skubal's case is overwhelming. The only difficult choice on the board here for me, since I can't reveal my NL ROY pick yet, was AL Rookie of the Year. Luis Gil has a very strong case and Austin Wells should also be considered. I landed on Cowser due to being a decent power presence in the lineup nearly everyday this season for the Orioles. I might change my mind and say Gil in a few days, though. It's that close.

National League

Anderson: I know people have made the case for Lindor and Wheeler, but I think Ohtani and Sale are layups. Baseball writers tend to reward special number combinations, giving Ohtani a clear edge; Sale, meanwhile, has Wheeler beat in every notable category, making it tough for me to see a real pathway for the Phillies ace there. Comparatively, I'm less certain on the Rookie of the Year Award. If I had to guess, Skenes takes it. Hard to argue with that given both his production and importance to the story of this season. Still, I threw Merrill a vote here to give him a nod for a stellar showing himself -- remember, he produced well above expectations offensively while taking to a new position; that's not easy to do.

Axisa: I was leaning Ohtani for MVP even before Francisco Lindor's back injury, and missing games at the end of the season in a postseason race is not the worst tiebreaker in the world. Sale has been maybe the best pitcher in all of baseball, not just the NL. Zack Wheeler has been outstanding and has a strong case for being the best pitcher of the last five years, but this year Sale has the edge in strikeouts, adjusted ERA, and enough other things for me to overlook the 16 or so inning gap in workload. Rookie of the Year is the closest NL race, I think. Jackson Merrill has been incredible, though Skenes has been historically great -- 1.99 ERA in 131 innings! -- and is having the kind of rookie season that we'll remember for a long time. The NL rookie class is so, so good. The ballot includes only three names and players like Shota Imanaga, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Tyler Fitzgerald may not get a single vote. How about we scrap AL Rookie of the Year and give out two NL Rookies of the Year this season? Seems fair to me.

Feldman: Francisco Lindor carried the Mets on his back for almost the entire year before that same back broke down. He put up arguably the best season of his excellent career. But Shohei Ohtani did what literally nobody in MLB history has ever done, and it wasn't some silly party trick either. That power/speed combination wasn't just a thrill to watch every night (which it was), it was a gamechanger for the Dodgers. Sorry to Zack Wheeler ( and Bryce Harper's campaign ) but you're coming in second for the Cy Young again. Chris Sale's resurgence in Atlanta has been incredible to watch and probably why the Braves are even in the playoff conversation. Who would have imagined that in a year of injuries, Sale would be the one to stay healthy? Either Jackson (Merrill or Chourio) is a perfectly acceptable choice for Rookie of the Year but I have to go with the spectacle of Paul Skenes. A sub-2.00 ERA is unheard of for anyone, let alone a rookie. That said, don't overlook Merrill, who learned a new position on the fly and still managed to put up wildly impressive offensive numbers.

Perry: Ohtani is an easy choice for me, and I bake in a substantial penalty when evaluating DHs for awards. Francisco Lindor has had an excellent season, and I think he's on course to be a future Hall of Famer. However, Ohtani's offense was such that no one compares to him in overall value. Sale is an easy call on the Cy front thanks to his run prevention and dominance at the command-and-control level. I go Skenes over Jackson Merrill for Rookie of the Year. I just can't ignore a sub-2.00 ERA and 2.48 FIP in 22 starts in front of what was a pretty poor Pirates defense.

Snyder: There was a push that was probably slightly manufactured for Francisco Lindor on the NL side, but his injury prevented him from having the sort of finish he would've needed to make the NL MVP race even close (ditto for Ketel Marte's injury shelving a possibly huge push on his end). I think Ohtani was the most valuable player in the league even if you wanted to slap "they are just arbitrary numbers!" on his 50-50 accomplishment. What he's done to hold up that injury-riddled Dodgers team has been absurd. Sale is the clear winner, even if Zack Wheeler has a fine case, for his first Cy Young. What an impressive season for the 35-year-old southpaw.