Cincinnati Reds announce end of year award recipients

The Cincinnati Reds announce their organizational award winners.

The Cincinnati Reds had plenty of individual years to celebrate.  They didn’t produce a great outcome at the major league level.  There is hope for the future, however.

National League MVP runner-up Joey Votto won the Ernie Lombardi Award for the team’s most valuable player.  He won the award unanimously for the second consecutive year.  Votto batted .320 with 36 home runs, while earning finalist consideration for the Gold Glove Award at first base.

Raisel Iglesias won the Johnny Vander Meer Most Outstanding Pitcher Award.  He collected 28 saves over 63 appearances.  In only 76 innings of work Iglesias stuck out 92, while allowing only 21 earned runs.

The Joe Nuxhall “Good Guy” Award was awarded to third baseman Eugenio Suarez.  It goes to the player that exhibits exceptional professionalism, is a good teammate, and is accountable to fans and the media.  He also found his footing at third base, playing 156 games hitting 26 home runs.

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Looking back over the season, these three were the most impressive players on the team.  Tucker Barnhart won the NL Gold Glove behind the plate, but he didn’t produce offensively the same way that Suarez and Votto did.  Iglesias was the most consistent pitcher all season long.

The Cincinnati Reds can see their future is bright, based on the minor leaguers that won awards.

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Top prospect Nick Senzel won the Sheldon “Chief” Bender Award for the Minor League Player of the Year.  He was the second overall pick in the 2016 MLB draft.  In 2017 he split his time between Single-A Daytona and Double-A Pensacola, batting a combined .321 over 119 games.

Jose Siri won the Hitter of the Year Award.  The Reds added the outfielder to their forty man roster recently to protect him during the Rule 5 Draft.  The slugger batted .293 for the Dayton Dragons in 2017.

The Pitcher of the Year Award went to Tyler Mahle, who made his major league debut in 2017.  Mahle pitched a combined 144 ½ innings for Triple-A and Double-A.  In his four starts with the big league club Mahle earned an ERA of 2.70.  

The Reds also awarded the Minor League Community Service Award to Dayton right hander Aaron Fossas.  Fossas underwent Tommy John following his junior year at Wake Forest.  In 2017 Fossas made 44 relief appearances, throwing 66 ⅔ innings.

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Fossas and Siri are still a big way away.  Mahle will start the season in Cincinnati and Senzel could too.  That is the sort of support that the MLB winners have coming in the near future.