American League Honorable Mentions
Kerry Carpenter
Our first honorable mention is Kerry Carpenter for the Detroit Tigers. After putting up good numbers in April and most of May, Carpenter got injured and was out until the middle of August. He put up a batting average of .283 while hitting 8 home runs and driving in 29 runs before the injury. After the season ended, he finished with a batting average of .284 and a .345 on base percentage while hitting 18 home runs and drove in 57 runs. However, despite those good stats, Carpenter really struggled against lefties getting 3 hits in 28 at bats vs them which is equivalent to a .107 batting average. Against righties, he had a batting average of .305 and a .363 on base percentage. In the American League division series however, he hit a three run home run in the 9th inning in Game 2 against Emmanuel Clase off a 94 mile per hour slider which led to a tigers victory.
Corbin Burnes
Our next honorable mention is Corbin Burnes for the Baltimore Orioles. Burnes started the all star game for the American League as he posted 15 wins with 9 losses with 181 strikeouts in 194.1 innings pitched. He came in 5th in the AL Cy Young Award running as he had a 2.92 earned run average. He started one playoff game where he pitched an outstanding 8 innings while only giving up 1 run but he took the loss because the offense for the Orioles couldn't put up runs which led to elimination.
Steven Kwan
Our final honorable mention is Steven Kwan for the Cleveland Guardians. After the month of July, Kwan had a batting average of .332 with 25 walks and only 30 strikeouts along with 11 home runs. The months of August and September however were tough for Kwan, having a batting average of .203 while hitting only 3 home runs and driving in 14 runs. At the end of the season, he finished with a .292 batting average along with a .368 on base percentage with 14 home runs, 44 runs driven in, along with only 51 strikeouts in 540 plate appearances.