It’s award week in baseball, with the MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year winners set to be announced over the course of the week.

The Rookies of the the Year will be named tonight, where Joey Wendle was not a top-three finalist. It’s an atrocity, but what can you do when you’re facing the Yankees for the not-Ohtani category?

The Rays have Kevin Cash and Blake Snell up for the Manager of the Year and Cy Young later this week.

Rays News

• Marc Topkin writes about why recently acquired catcher, Mike Zunino, is a perfect fit for the Rays, including his on and off the field contributions
• Neil Solondz considers what’s next in the Rays offseason plan
• Jeff Passan played down the likelihood of the Rays being active in free agency this winter:

The Rays, sources said, don’t expect to be excessively active in free agency this offseason, particularly for a team coming off a surprise 90-win season.

• Rays Colored Glasses made an Opening Day roster prediction, with the idea that the Rays will be making several big moves this winter
• Also at Rays Colored Glasses, with the trade of Mallex Smith, Austin Meadows can be penciled into the Rays starting outfield
• MLB.com looked back at some of the top free agent signings in each team’s history, spotlighting Carlos Pena for the Rays, as well as which Rays player is the most likely to be traded this winter
• Our friends at The Good Phight proposed four trades the Phillies should make this offseason. One of the deals suggested is this:

Trade Odubel Herrera, Justin Bour & Pat Neshek to the Rays for Kevin Kiermaier

• ICYMI: Baseball Prospectus on how The Rays are “screwing up splits” ($)
• Add this kid to your watchlist:

• The Rays participated in the TB Heart Walk

Around the League

• Craig Edwards published a massive study on prospect evaluations, utilizing Baseball America data since 1990, and attributing a dollar value per Future Value grade, with a sliding scale, noting:

while the numbers come out as one value per valuation, the rankings would serve little purpose if we simply placed the same value on all players with a 50 grade

It’s an interesting application of a straightforward but important concept when evaluating prospects and trade in which they are included. Also, if you’re anything like us, you’ll want that pivot table pronto, so here is a sum for the FanGraphs Top-131:

• The Hardball Times: The Physics of a Wobbling Fly Ball
• Jeff Sullivan on how fan feelings changed about teams this year. (Atlanta and TB had the feels)
• Joe Mauer officially retired after 15 seasons in MLB, after an under appreciated career
• SBNation: Whitney McIntosh says those Kris Bryant trade rumors don’t pass the sniff test, also Grant Brisbee sees Chicago’s North Siders signing Machado