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Rangers’ Bruce Bochy, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien named finalists for MLB awards

There could be even more hardware in the Rangers’ future.

The Rangers will have the two best mortal players in the American League for 2023.

Of course, this doesn’t count superhuman Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels.

Corey Seager and Marcus Semien were both announced as finalists for the AL MVP on Monday night. Ohtani, the heavy favorite to win the award, is the other finalist. The Baseball Writers Association of America vote on the MVP, Cy Young, Manager of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards. The winners will be named next week, starting with Rookie of the Year. The awards are voted on before the start of the postseason, so they do not account for postseason performance.

Bruce Bochy was named as a Manager of the Year finalist along with Baltimore’s Brandon Hyde and Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash.

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Seager, the World Series MVP, finished second in the AL batting race to Tampa Bay’s Yandy Diaz .330-.327. He was second to Ohtani (1.066) in OPS, tied for fifth in homers (33), tied for 10th in RBIs and tied for third in runs created at 116. He was a Gold Glove finalist, but did not win. According to Baseball-Reference’s WAR calculation, he ranked third at 6.5.

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Ohtani, who did not play after September 3, led the league in homers (44) and WAR (according to Baseball-Reference) at 10.0. His WAR number was so high, partly because of his unique ability to pitch. He generated 4 WAR based on pitching.

Semien, who led the league in plate appearances (753), runs scored (122) and hits (185), was one of three players to finish with both 100 runs and 100 RBIs, along with Ohtani and Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez. Semien led position players in WAR (7.4), per Baseball-Reference’s calculation. He appeared in all 162 regular season games, compared to 135 for Ohtani and 119 for Seager.

A Ranger has won the MVP award six times. Josh Hamilton was the most recent in 2010. But the club has never had two of the top three in the voting.

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Bochy won the NL Manager of the Year award in 1996 with San Diego, but hasn’t won a league Manager of the Year Award since. He won his fourth World Series title as a manager last week.

Josh Jung did not finish among the AL Rookie of the Year finalists. Jung was a leading candidate for the award, until he suffered a broken bone in his thumb in August. Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson is expected to win the award. Boston’s Triston Casas and Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee are the other Rookie of the Year finalists.

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant

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