This season marks my fourth as a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, and every award I’ve voted on has been pretty straight forward.

In 2022, I voted Michael Harris II for NL Rookie of the Year. Blake Snell was my NL Cy Young in ‘23 (though I gave Logan Webb a lot of consideration) and Pat Murphy was my NL Manager of the Year in ‘24. This year, I selected Shohei Ohtani as my NL MVP — as did everyone else who had a vote.

Ohtani was the easy pick for myself and everyone else who had a vote, but the real fun — and real agony — resided in the rest of the spots. What did I consider valuable, and to what extent?

So, here’s both my ballot and my thought process. It was a fun process, and it’s possible I look back on my selections a couple years (or days) from now and shake

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