There will be no MVPs or Cy Youngs awarded through three weeks.
But just as a thought exercise: Would you consider Padres closer Mason Miller for both in the National League?
The likelihood over a full season is minuscule, at best. Nine relievers have won a Cy, but just one since 1992 — Eric Gagne in 2003. Four relievers have won MVP, none since Dennis Eckersley in 1992. And just three — Rollie Fingers in 1981, Willie Hernandez in 1984 and Eckersley in 1992 — have won both awards in the same year.
No metric dominates awards voting now like Wins Above Replacement, and a reliever just will not accumulate enough to likely gain even serious traction. It would take an extraordinary individual season under perhaps extraordinary circumstances to even begin to counter that.


