2024 MLB Awards Watch: MVP, Cy Young, ROY hit final stretch - ESPN

Just as the MLB playoff races have entered the home stretch, so too has the positioning for baseball's postseason awards. Though the leading candidates have been firmly established, and some races seem more settled than others, nothing is set in stone.

With that in mind, I offer up the last Awards Watch of the 2024 season with a twist: The awards are ordered based on which ones most depend on these final three weeks.

The first award listed — the red-hot National League Rookie of the Year race — has the most down-the-stretch drama. Conversely, the last award is the most fixed — but even there, I'm not giving up on some drama arising before we reach October.

I've added the current odds from ESPN BET, paring those with an implied probability percentage based on those odds — but the ordering of the awards is my take on them, not a straight reflection of the odds.

Here's how all the award races stand as they go down to the wire.

Front-runner: Jackson Merrill, San Diego Padres (127.6 AXE)

Next nine: 2. Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates (127.5); 3. Jackson Chourio, Milwaukee Brewers (121.8); 4. Masyn Winn, St. Louis Cardinals (119.7); 5. Shota Imanaga, Chicago Cubs (117.4); 6. Tyler Fitzgerald, San Francisco Giants (116.0); 7. Jacob Young, Washington Nationals (114.9); 8. Michael Busch, Cubs (113.4); 9. Bryan Hudson, Brewers (111.8); 10. Gavin Stone, Los Angeles Dodgers (111.7).

ESPN BET favorite: Merrill (-1000, 90.9%)

AXE is a rating system developed to combine the results from the leading publicly available value metrics to create a consensus evaluation of each player. These include bWAR, fWAR, win probability added and championship probability added. The ratings for each system are combined using standard scores and weighted