It’s that time of year again…time for my annual SOTY post. This year, however, nobody really stands out. Maybe if, somehow, the Dodgers win the World Series, they give it to Shohei Ohtani, but he doesn’t have the standout stats like he did before. I hesitate to choose an NBA player, as the most recent pro team athlete to win it was Curry in 2022.
Right now, my guess is, Caitlin Clark & Angel Reese, as the WNBA seems to be the most in the news, especially with the new TV contract and the “Pay Us What You Owe Us” response. True, Clark has a injury that cut her season short, but as far as SI’s target audience is concerned, she is still “the name” of the league.
That’s exactly what I would guess too, even while I was reading the first paragraph. For good or bad, they are the only reason people are paying attention to the WNBA.
Reese missed most of the last third of the WNBA season due to a combination of a back injury and suspensions; she’s under a cloud here in Chicago right now due to her comments about the Sky not being committed to winning, and it’s widely believed that she may be on her way out of town. I don’t think that she’s a “feel-good” story right now.
With no obvious NBA or MLB choices right now, if an NFL or college football player has a transcendent season, that’d be a likely choice.
That said, if the Brewers make it to the World Series, my dark horse candidate is their manager, Pat Murphy. A guy who was a long-time manager in college (at Notre Dame and Arizona State), he didn’t get a chance at a permanent managerial role in the majors until he was 65, when the Brewers named him to replace Craig Counsell (who had left to manage the rival Cubs).
In '24, his first year as a full-time MLB manager (not counting an interim stint with the Padres in 2015), with a very young team, he led the Brewers to a division title. This year, despite a recent slump, they still have the best record in baseball. If they make it to the Series – which they have only ever done once, 43 years ago – it’ll be a great story.
I haven’t followed baseball all that closely in recent years, but what about Paul Skenes? His name pops up on my social media frequently as “the guy who would be having an otherworldly year if he wasn’t stuck on a bad team” type of athlete.
Skenes is the favorite to win the NL Cy Young award, but a great player on a second-division team probably isn’t the kind of story that makes for a good SI Sportsperson, unless there was also some additional compelling storyline around Skenes (public service, overcoming a tragedy or a career-threatening injury, etc.); as far as I know, that’s not the case with him, this year.
I think Tyrese Haliburton from the Pacers bears consideration, too. He had many late-game heroics during Indiana’s magical trip to Game 7 of the NBA Finals. In fact, he had a game-winning shot in every series. He made people all over the world start following the Pacers. And the Pacers/Thunder series was highly rated especially considering their small markets.
As a Seattle area resident and Mariners fan, I hesitate to suggest him because of homerism. But his story is pretty compelling.
But I like the suggestion in the OP about WNBA players, particularly Caitlin and Angel. Their celebrity has elevated the profile of women’s basketball as a whole, and I think it’s a major sports story.
Interest in the WNBA has definitely surged over the last two years. OTOH, Clark and Reese both missed a lot of time this year due to injuries: Clark only played in 13 out of 44 games, and Reese only 30 out of 44. And, as I noted already, Reese has had a cloud around her in recent weeks, and gotten a lot of criticism for some of her comments on social media.
I would find it weird if Raleigh won SotY when he shouldn’t win the MVP. Judge is first in almost every offensive category. He’s first in WAR in the MLB and that has been one of the main indicators for MVP voting for at least the last 15 years. Raleigh is 12th in MLB and 6th in the AL. For SotY that could be eclipsed by a great post season run but that’s unknowable right now.
We can pretend to know the calculus they use at Sport illustrated but that’s also unknowable. They of course want more clicks and eyeballs. The drama of the WNBA seems to get clicks. At least that’s what the clips on the internet keep showing me. The Caitlin/Angel story seems like a minefield. There tends to be a big racial component to all of those conversations. Picking one or the other is problematic. Picking both shines a spotlight on the issues between the two of them. If they cop out and name the league itself that will bypass a lot of the mines. I really hate when they pick a large group instead of an individual.
We must have different definitions of favorite. Right now on FanDuel Judge is at -1100 and Raleigh is at +600. Judge is the pretty clear favorite to win MVP. If you are that convinced Cal will win it’s time to make some money.
Judge isn’t as big a favorite as Ohtani who is at -50000 to Schwarber’s +2700. Leading in home runs isn’t as important as other metrics these days.
In that case, it would probably go to the commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, as a “figurehead” for the league. I think the only other commissioner to be SOTY was NFL’s Pete Rozelle, in 1963.
Indeed. Raleigh is leading the majors in HRs and RBIs; he is having a monster year in that regard, and having, by far, the best year of his career. But he’s cooled off some, and is only hitting .241 (.215 in the last 4 weeks); he’s #3 in the AL in slugging, #4 in OPS+, and #5 in bWAR among AL position players.
Yes, he’s done that as a catcher, and caught in 3/4 of the games in which he’s played; doing so at a physically-demanding position is important to note, though my understanding is that he’s an OK, but not amazing, catcher.
Raleigh is a great story this year. I’m not sure how much a great story and a ton of HRs overcomes the rest of the sabermetrics that MVP voters probably look at these days.
He’s been dating Olivia Dunne for several years - I’m surprised he isn’t the front runner based solely on SI’s chance to get her picture on the cover of their magazine. It’d be the most pandering choice they could make, which makes it a near certainty!