MLB award season talk won’t really heat up until after the All-Star break, but it’s never too early to check in on the top candidates to take home MVP and Cy Young honors here in 2014.
What follows is a look at the top five candidates for both honors in the National League and American League as things stand today and whether or not they are legitimate contenders or pretenders to actually take home the award at season’s end.
An awful lot will change between now and the actual voting, but there are undoubtedly some players who have separated themselves from the pack entering June.
*All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference unless otherwise noted. All injury information courtesy of MLBDepthCharts team pages. League ranks reflect players’ ranks among qualified hitters/pitchers through May 30.