This second MLB Monday miniseries gets another now-annual entry, as we look at the secondary awards for the 2024 mLB season. The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second World Series in five years with a pretty dominant—and surprising—performance over the New York Yankees, playing in their first Fall Classic since winning it all in 2009. Of course, there are other tidbits to explore as well, so enjoy the read!

2024 World Series MVP: Freddie Freeman, 1B, Los Angeles (NL) (original, confirmed)

Despite outscoring the Yankees by just one run (25-24), the Dodgers won the Series in just five games after jumping out to a 3-0 lead. We expected it to go at least six games for TV ratings, so we were wrong. Anyway, L.A. first baseman Freddie Freeman (4 HRs; 12 RBI; 1.364 OPS) won the MVP vote, and it’s hard to argue when no other batter had more than a single HR or four RBI. No starting pitcher won two games, either.

2024 ALCS MVP: Giancarlo Stanton, DH, New York (original); Juan Soto, RF, New York (revised)

The Bronx Bombers eliminated the Cleveland Guardians in five games to win the pennant, and designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (4 HRs; 7 RBI; 1.222 OPS) won the MVP vote. It was a relatively close with all games being decided by three runs or less, two of them in extra innings. Yet, Stanton hit just .222 in the matchup, and he was outdone by teammate Juan Soto: 3 HRs; 6 RBI; 1.373 OPS; and a .368 BA. Dilemmas!

Not really: Stanton literally only had those four hits in the five games. That’s not good, despite the deep-ball outcomes. Soto was consistently on base more (.478 OBP to .333 for Stanton), meaning the right fielder really should have won this award. Plus, Soto played defense, too, without an error, and actually using the glove for positive impact has to count here as well. No starting pitcher won two games, either.

So we re-assign this hardware to Soto, without doubt. We find this to be an emotional vote, for whatever reason, and we really don’t like to let emotions impact our analyses, as we stick to data. To cement this, Soto’s WPA was 33 percent higher than Stanton’s mark (0.81 to 0.60), as well. Seriously, this was a bad vote.

2024 NLCS MVP: Tommy Edman, UTL, Los Angeles (original); Max Muncy, 3B, Los Angeles (revised)

L.A. dropped the New York Mets in six games, sparring us all a Subway Series repeat. Dodgers utility man Tommy Edman (1 HR; 11 RBI; 1.022 OPS; 1 SB) won the MVP vote, probably because of that larger RBI mark. But three of his teammates had higher OPS marks, although one of them had a caught stealing on the ledger. So, at least two L.A. hitters played better than Edman here as the Dodgers outscored the Mets, 46-26.

That means most of the offensive contributions were superfluous. What about the pitching? There are no real candidates there in our eyes. Thus, we’re going with L.A. third baseman Max Muncy (2 HR; 4 RBI; 1.363 OPS; 2 SB; 11 BBs) instead; sure, Edman hit .407, but in three Dodgers’ blowout wins (Games 1, 3, and 4), he had 5 RBI in games L.A. won by a combined 27-2 margin. We like Muncy’s all-around game here better.

2024 AL MOTY: Stephen Vogt, Cleveland (original, confirmed)

It was an odd year, as the best PPP mark by a manager with a winning record came from Guardians Manager Stephen Vogt (plus-2). He won the vote here, so there’s not a lot else to discuss. We will give a shoutout to the plus-6 PPP effort from Tampa Bay Rays Manager Kevin Cash, though, as his team finished with 80 wins in a competitive AL East Division. But we confirm Vogt’s award with a smile and a cap tilt.

2024 NL MOTY: Pat Murphy, Milwaukee (original); Mike Shildt, San Diego (revised)

Despite a minus-2 PPP, Milwaukee Brewers Manager Pat Murphy won the vote here. Needless to say, he won’t be winning our hardware, obviously. Our real candidates are Philadelphia Phillies Manager Rob Thomson (plus-3); St. Louis Cardinals skipper Oliver Marmol (plus-7); Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts (plus-2); San Diego Padres skipper Mike Shildt (plus-3); and Mets Manager Carlos Mendoza (plus-1).

The Cards missed the postseason by six games, despite Marmol’s league-best effort. So, we can’t really give the nod to him, despite the impressive results. The Mets finished six games behind the Phillies to claim the final postseason berth, but with Atlanta and its minus-3 PPP result from the Braves dugout leadership, we’re not sure we can reward either NL East manager for “overcoming” such an opponent, in truth. Right?

That leaves us with Roberts and Shildt; we’ve given this award to both managers, previously (Roberts in 2016 and 2017, Shildt in 2021). The Dodgers outdid the Padres by five games in the NL West Division, while the Padres outdid the Braves and the Mets by four games each—not to mention the 89-win Arizona Diamondbacks, who lost out on the postseason by tiebreak. Shildt was better, while under more pressure.