Chicago Cubs 2024 Team Awards |
When it comes to baseball in October, the Chicago Cubs, unfortunately, are not playing.
After the World Series, MLB will be giving out some awards — and it doesn’t look like any of the Cubs players are in line to win them. But after the 2024 season, we at CubsHQ can give out our awards for the Cubs’ season: MVP The most valuable player on the 2024 Cubs was undoubtedly Shota Imanaga. Signed to a four-year 53 million dollar contract out of Japan — Imanaga instantly made his presence felt as a bonafide ACE in MLB. Imanaga had an outstanding record of 15-3, accounting for almost 20% of the team wins. The Cubs were 23-6 in games he started, and he finished top-5 in ERA amongst qualified starting pitchers. It was a phenomenal rookie season and one of immense value for Chicago.
Honorable Mention: Ian Happ. After severe struggles early in the season, Happ battled back to turn in one of his most productive seasons. In a season that featured the Cubs offense being shut down often, there were long periods of time that it felt like Happ was the Cubs’ only offense. He tied a career-high with 25 homers and set a new career high in RBIs with 86 — and he appears to be on his way to a third straight Gold Glove in LF.
GOLD GLOVE
The Cubs' best fielder in 2024 was Pete Crow-Armstrong. Even when his offense was far behind the mark you needed it to be, Crow-Armstrong forced his way into the lineup because of his elite speed and the way he defends at a premier position. He made plays with high degrees of difficulty look routine while mixing in his fair share of highlight reel plays — that many players could not dream of making. He may not have played enough games this season to win MLB’s Gold Glove — but he should remain a favorite to win that award in the future.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
For this category, we’d like to make something clear — it doesn’t necessarily have to be a player’s rookie season; it could just be their first with the Cubs. That being said, Shota Imanaga is the obvious answer — but we will offer another solution…who happens to be a rookie as well: Michael Busch. Busch was acquired from the Dodgers via trade in the winter and was expected to be the Cubs first baseman, and he certainly delivered. The strides he made defensively were beyond impressive; he fully turned into one of the best first-basemen in the sport in his first full season at the position. Mix that with a solid offensive output of a .248 average with 21 home runs and 65 RBIs, and you have a player the Cubs are incredibly excited about in the coming years.
Honorable Mention goes to Porter Hodge. Since he was called up, he was somebody to trust for manager Craig Counsell — so much so that Hodge became the team’s closer by the end of the season with nine saves. In 43 innings, Hodge had 52 strikeouts and only allowed nine earned runs for a stellar 1.88 ERA.
MOST IMPROVED
I think this category was reserved for Christopher Morel before the season, but we all know how that unfolded in 2024. But beyond that, Jameson Taillon made some strong strides in 2024. After a rocky 2023 that featured an 8-10 record with a 4.84 ERA, he answered in 2024 with a 12-8 record and a 3.27 ERA — and absolutely factors into the Cubs’ rotation plans moving forward.
Honorable Mention: Jorge Lopez was released by the Mets after 26.1 innings at a 3.76 ERA with 19 strikeouts. Then, after the Cubs acquired him, he pitched 26.2 innings to a 2.03 ERA with 31 strikeouts—a vast improvement that the Cubs hope to build on in 2024 as a staple in their bullpen.
CY YOUNG
It would be hard not to give this award to Shota Imanaga, who might receive votes in the NL’s Cy Young award voting. But just for the sake of parody, we will give this season’s Cy Young to Justin Steele. Despite battling numerous injuries, Steele’s effectiveness on the mound was the same. The left-hander, who finished 5th in 2023’s NL Cy Young Award voting, had a 3.07 ERA in 134.2 innings.
Honorable Mention is Porter Hodge again. By the end of his first big league season, he was the closer for a team fighting for its playoff lives and doing so with dominance. In 39 appearances, his ERA remained below 2.00 — he’s a stud.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Well, the Cubs missed the playoffs, so the roster had some disappointing aspects. Cody Bellinger was fine this season, but the Cubs expected and hoped he would look more like he did in 2023, so that was disappointing for a lineup that lacked a true star in 2024. Dansby Swanson is getting paid $177 million over seven years, and he didn’t look like a player who was earning over $20 million per year until the All-Star Break.
Christopher Morel was so disappointing that the Cubs moved on from him in the middle of the season despite putting all their preseason chips in his basket. But the biggest disappointment comes from how poorly the Cubs closed games.
Mainly, the first half of the season that featured an ineffective and injured Adbert Alzolay and then a juiceless Hector Neris saw the Cubs blow far too many games and is essentially the reason we aren’t talking about who the Cubs are playing in the NLDS. The Cubs blew the second most saves in the majors through the first half of the year. When you finish the season blowing almost 30 saves — the bullpen has to be pretty disappointing.
