Cubs CF Pete Crow-Armstrong is an MVP finalist -- and White Sox's Will Venable gets Manager of the Year nod

LaMond Pope, Chicago Tribune on Nov 2, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — Pete Crow-Armstrong displayed his all-around talents daily for the Chicago Cubs. And on the South Side, manager Will Venable guided the White Sox through a remarkable turnaround.

Both were announced as finalists for Baseball Writers’ Association of America awards on Monday.

Fresh off winning a Gold Glove Award on Sunday, Crow-Armstrong was revealed as one of the finalists for National League Most Valuable Player. Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Brice Turang of the Milwaukee Brewers are also in the running.

Venable is a finalist for American League Manager of the Year — along with Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays and Chad Tracy of the Boston Red Sox — after the White Sox made a 24-game improvement and made the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

Crow-Armstrong became just the seventh player in major-league history to have a season with at least 40 home runs (45) and 40 stolen bases (41) — the first Cub to achieve the feat.

Offensively, he led the majors in fWAR (10.6), bWAR (9.8), runs (119) and extra-base hits (84) and was tied for first in home runs (45). He also topped the NL with a .943 OPS and a .570 slugging percentage. Overall, he slashed .280/.372/.570 with 31 doubles, 45 home runs, 107 RBIs and 41 stolen bases in 162 games.

Defensively, Crow-Armstrong led MLB outfielders with 26 outs above average (OAA) and a 26 fielding run value (FRV) on the way to earning his second consecutive NL Gold Glove Award.

“The thing that I keep saying is I was actually able to appreciate the year as it was going on, which was the first time I’ve been able to do that in my life just because there was a lot of good this year, and more good than bad when it comes to baseball expectations,” Crow-Armstrong said on Sunday.

The good times were plentiful for the Sox this year under Venable. The skipper was named the Sporting News AL Manager of the Year last month after the team went from a 60-102 record in 2025 to an 84-78 mark and a postseason appearance in 2026.

The Sox battled for the AL Central title all the way to the final series of the season, finishing one game behind the division-winning Cleveland Guardians.

It was the second straight season the Sox made at least a 19-game improvement, going from 41 wins in 2024 under Pedro Grifol and interim manager Grady Sizemore to 60 victories in 2025 during Venable’s first year and 84 this season.

According to Stats Perform, he is just the third major-league manager since 1901 to improve by 19-plus wins in back-to-back seasons (excluding the pandemic-shortened season and strikes), joining Hall of Famers Miller Huggins of the 1925-27 New York Yankees (69 to 91 to 110) and John McGraw of the 1902-04 New York Giants (48 to 84 to 106).

“Will’s the man,” Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery said ahead of the AL wild-card series against the Houston Astros. “From the belief, from the confidence, and everything, it’s started with him and it kind of trickled down to all of us young guys.

“I feel like once you have a guy that is so confident and so positive and ready, it’s just how can you not want to try to be exactly like that.”

The award winners will be announced next week — Manager of the Year on Nov. 10 and MVP on Nov. 12.

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Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro contributed to this report.