Top first-time candidates to win MVP, Cy Young in 2027

All four of the Cy Young and MVP Award winners honored this week had one thing in common: It was the first time for each of them. That was a big change from a year ago, when Tarik Skubal (AL Cy), Aaron Judge (AL MVP) and Shohei Ohtani (NL MVP) all repeated from 2024, with the two MVPs winning for the third and fourth time overall, respectively.

But perhaps a tide has turned now. So that brings to mind this question: Who’s next? Who are the most likely players to follow in the footsteps of Cam Schlittler, Jacob Misiorowski, Yordan Alvarez and Pete Crow-Armstrong and win their first Cy Young or MVP Award in 2027?

Here are five candidates for each, listed in order of their highest finish to this point.

CY YOUNG

Dylan Cease, Blue Jays

Best finish: 2nd in 2022 (AL), ’26 (AL)

So much went wrong for the Jays in 2026, but the signing of Cease sure didn’t. He was magnificent from the jump with his new club, putting up a 2.40 ERA in 29 starts and locking down a rotation that was the clear strength of the team. His peripheral numbers were even better. Cease led AL qualifiers in each of the following: FIP (2.56, tied with Schlittler), strikeout rate (34.9%), and both hits (5.8) and homers (0.59) allowed per nine innings.

Cease has now finished in the top five of Cy Young voting three times, including twice as the runner-up. (He also placed behind Justin Verlander in 2022.) It may be time for the next leap.

Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies

Best finish: 2nd in 2025 (NL), ’26 (NL)

This is an easy one: He has finished second for two consecutive years, also placing behind Paul Skenes in 2025. In both years, Sánchez actually led the Majors in Baseball-Reference’s version of pitching WAR, with 8.1. In 2026, he also won 18 games for a team that was perhaps more desperate for wins than any other in the sport.

Sánchez is a little older than the likes of Skenes and Misiorowski, but he’s a year younger than Cease, turning 30 on Dec. 12. Something of a late bloomer, he’s at his peak right now. If he’s going to do it, 2027 may be the year.

Max Fried, Yankees

Best finish: 2nd (2022 NL)

He’s going to start feeling lonely as a Yankees starter who doesn’t have a Cy Young Award. He shares a rotation not only with Schlittler, but also Gerrit Cole, which just serves to further obscure how good Fried is. He hasn’t had an ERA above 3.25 since 2019, and his 2.82 ERA over the past seven seasons is the lowest in the Majors (minimum 700 innings). Fried also remains as good as anyone in baseball at keeping the ball in the ballpark -- just four homers allowed in 112 2/3 innings this season -- which is particularly impressive considering his current home ballpark.

The issue for Fried tends to be injuries. A left elbow issue sidelined him twice in 2026, holding him to 20 starts and leading to offseason surgery to remove a bone spur. The two times Fried has topped 175 innings (2022 and ’25), he’s finished top four in Cy voting. Another full, healthy season with the Yankees could finally reveal his true greatness.

Nolan McLean, Mets

Best finish: Has not received votes

If you’re looking for a young starter to make a Misiorowski- or Schlittler-like leap in 2027, perhaps it’s McLean? The 25-year-old doesn’t throw as hard as the Miz, of course, but nobody does. But he was nearly as effective in the second half, putting up a 2.61 ERA over 12 starts after the All-Star break for a Mets team that was a lot better down the stretch than anyone noticed. (Really, McLean was excellent all year, outside of May, when he had a 6.10 ERA.)

It remains to be seen if the Mets land Tarik Skubal this offseason, but for now, McLean is the clear ace of this staff. Even if Skubal comes to Queens, McLean is going to be a player the Mets build around for years to come, and for good reason.

Chase Burns, Reds

Best finish: Has not received votes

It has not been fully appreciated how great Burns was in 2026, in part because the Reds limited his usage in September, when he threw just nine innings over three starts, leaving him with 154 1/3 innings in his first full MLB season. Still, Burns struck out 185 batters, and he was good in an old-school way, too, going 15-3, a classic baseball-card record, for a team that finished last in the NL Central.

Burns was 11-1 with a 2.54 ERA at the break, and that speaks even more to the obvious Cy Young potential here. It was a frustrating year for the Reds, but with the 23-year-old Burns, along with Elly De La Cruz and NL Rookie of the Year Sal Stewart, they’ve got quite a foundation to build upon.

MVP

Junior Caminero, Rays

Best finish: 2nd (2026 AL)

The obvious candidate, he finished second in MVP voting this year and, for what it’s worth, ninth in 2025. Caminero is the star of a team that just reached the World Series, he keeps getting better every year (his OBP went up almost 50 points this year) and he puts up some pretty eye-popping baseball-card numbers.

Fifty homers seems like it’ll be part of his future very, very soon. If Caminero reaches that number, keeps getting on base and is a signature part of the Rays’ success? He won’t be finishing second when that happens.

Bobby Witt Jr., Royals

Best finish: 2nd (2024 AL)

Witt’s 2024 was absolutely incredible: He batted .332 with a 174 OPS+, combined 32 homers with 31 steals and played a strong shortstop, finishing with 9.6 bWAR. That would have won him an MVP in almost any year -- but not in the 2024 AL, with Judge having the best season of his career and one of the bests seasons of all time.

Witt’s overall numbers have gone down two years in a row now … which means fallen to … a still-MVP level. He’s only 26, he’s a Gold Glove shortstop and he just stole 45 bases. If Witt can find his power stroke again -- he just hit a career-low 18 homers -- he will remain the whole package.

Juan Soto, Mets

Best finish: 2nd (2021 NL)

Yep: Soto still hasn’t won one. He is still so young -- he just turned 28 at the end of October -- that you forget he is about to play his 10th year in the big leagues. Although he didn’t receive any MVP votes in 2026, he’s finished in the top 10 in six seasons, adding a pair of third-place finishes (2024 and ’25) to that 2021 runner-up placement, behind former teammate Bryce Harper.

Considering he’s signed with the Mets through 2039, Soto is obviously going to have many more opportunities. He needs to stay healthy for a full season, but the scariest thing is that he could just be entering his prime right now.

Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres

Best finish: 3rd (2021 NL)

Remember early this season when we were all worried about how he wasn’t hitting any home runs? Well, he ended up with 25, as many as he had in 2025, to go along with a career high in stolen bases (38), and he was an absolute monster in the second half, putting up a .996 OPS after the All-Star break.

Tatis’ offensive numbers are starting to resemble those he was putting up before his 2022 suspension, and has become one of the best defensive outfielders in the sport. And he’s still only 27. The peak year is coming, and it might be 2027.

James Wood, Nationals

Best finish: 16th (2026 NL)

There’s always someone who takes that huge step forward toward establishing himself as a perennial MVP candidate, and that’s what Wood did in 2026. Wood was an excellent hitter in 2025, but he was better at everything in 2026, improving both his strikeout rate and walk rate, hitting the ball even harder and adding 38 points of OBP (.388) and 28 points of SLG (.503).

Wood won’t turn 25 until next September, and he’s getting frighteningly better in a very short amount of time. Now he just needs to stay strong to the finish line, after two straight years of seeing his numbers drop off down the stretch. A 40-homer season seems imminent. An MVP season may quickly follow.