Elephant Rumblings: Awards, a Silver Slugger & off-season speculation

The Great Soto Sweepstakes are on!

Good morning, A’s Nation. Now that we’re about two weeks post-World Series, the award season is kicking off and speculation is high regarding the big-name free agents (one named Soto to be specific), as well as the direction many of our favorite teams will travel this off-season.

The A’s got off to a loud start Tuesday afternoon when MLB announced that Brent Rooker was the American League DH Silver Slugger winner. Rooker batted .293 on the season with 39 home runs and 112 RBIs. He’s the first A’s player to win since Eric Chavez won the award in 2002.

The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) recognizes the best of the 2024 season with the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards, the Manager of the Year Awards, the Cy Young Awards and the Most Valuable Player Awards. This past weekend they announced the finalists for each award. For more information, including bios of the finalists, visit this page on mlb.com. The awards will be broadcast live on mlb.com next week with this schedule:

• Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year: Monday, Nov. 18
• Manager of the Year: Tuesday, Nov. 19
• Cy Young: Wednesday, Nov. 20
• Most Valuable Player: Thursday, Nov. 21

MLB News & Interest:

• Aaron Boone to join Yankees group meeting with Juan Soto
• A new team joins the Soto sweepstakes
• New White Sox manager Will Venable wants Grady Sizemore to stay
• Here’s how Buster Posey is handling front office transition
• Reds honor Pete Rose with stadium visitation for fans
• Wander Franco arrested in D.R. after altercation
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

A quick roundup of recent moves:

From MLB:

Stay tuned for much more post-season fun!