Acuña (MVP), Snitker (MOY) named finalists for BBWAA honors.
ATLANTA — Ronald Acuña Jr. could become the eighth Braves player to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award, while Brian Snitker could capture his second NL Manager of the Year Award within the past six seasons.
Acuña and Snitker are Atlanta’s only finalists for any of this year’s major awards, the winners of which will be announced next week on MLB Network.
Acuña joins a pair of Dodgers, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, as the finalists for the NL MVP Award. The winner will be announced on MLB Network at 6 p.m. ET on Nov. 16.
Snitker joins the Marlins’ Skip Schumaker and Craig Counsell — who spent 2023 with the Brewers before departing for the Cubs this offseason — as the finalists for the NL Manager of the Year Award. The winner will be announced on MLB Network at 6 p.m. ET on Nov. 14.
Acuña produced one of the greatest seasons in MLB history, becoming the first player to hit 40 homers and tally 70 stolen bases in a season. There had been just four previous 40-40 seasons in AL/NL history. Alex Rodriguez’s 46 steals in 1998 had previously stood as the highest total registered with a 40-homer season.
There were seemingly no limits for Acuña, who thrived during his first full season removed from the right ACL tear he suffered halfway through the 2021 season.
Acuña finished his MVP-caliber season hitting .337 with 41 home runs, 217 hits, 80 extra-base hits, 106 RBIs, 149 runs, a 1.012 OPS and 84 strikeouts. He joined Lou Gehrig (1927), Chuck Klein (‘30) and Joe DiMaggio (‘37) as the only players who have hit at least .335 with 40 home runs, 215 hits, 80 extra-base hits, 100 RBIs, 145 runs and a 1.000 OPS with fewer than 90 strikeouts.
Doing something the game hasn’t seen since 1937 is MVP-worthy. And that doesn’t even account for any of Acuña’s franchise-record 73 steals.
When Snitker won the Manager of the Year Award in 2018, he joined Bobby Cox as the only Braves to be bestowed with this honor. Snitker now has a chance to join his Hall of Fame mentor as one of the few who have won this award multiple times.
Atlanta went most of this past season without Kyle Wright, who was MLB’s only 20-game winner in 2022, while Max Fried was available for just a little more than two months.
Still, even without two of his top starters, Snitker guided the Braves to a sixth straight NL East title and a second straight 100-win season. His decision to move Matt Olson to the middle of the lineup in mid-June sparked the first baseman’s run toward franchise records in home runs (54) and RBIs (139).
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