Fantasy Baseball 2026 Awards: Most valuable pitcher and hitter, biggest breakthrough, best comeback and more

Pete Crow-Armstrong, Miguel Vargas and Jordan Walker are among the players taking home hardware Sep 29, 2026 at 4:14 pm ET • 1 min read The 2026 season is over, and the debriefing shall commence. My preferred way to begin is by handing out awards to some of the players who made the season what it was.How many awards? Thinking back to the 40 I issued last year, two words come to mind: how pretentious. I can't monopolize people's time like that anymore. There are no more lineups to set. No more pickups to make. Any time I take up here is time better spent watching playoff baseball or even YouTube.So instead of 40 this year, I've reduced it to ... OK, to 35, which is still pretentious, but I'm genuinely trying to represent all of the principal actors from this season. Some of these awards are serious business. Others are a bit silly. All are final, so if you have any complaints, bring them to your mother.In case you're wondering about my picks for standard awards like MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year, I'll share them right at the top here, but they're not as interesting as what follows.AL MVP: Yordan Alvarez, OF, HOU NL MVP: Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF, CHC AL CY: Cam Schlittler, SP, NYY NL CY: Jacob Misiorowski, SP, MIL AL ROY: Kevin McGonigle, 3B/SS, DET NL ROY: Sal Stewart, 1B/3B, CIN You see? Boring. Now, let's get to the good stuff. Best Value, hitter editionBest Value, pitcher editionBiggest Breakthrough, midseason editionBest Midseason Comeback (tie)What's Dead May Never Die awardThe One Who Fantasy Footballers Won't See ComingThe One Who Nobody Saw ComingDon't You Forget about Me awardMr. Loook Who Finally Decided to Show Up