St. Louis Cardinals: End of season team awards

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 22: Dakota Hudson #43 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates a groundball out of Manny Machado #8 of the Los Angeles Dodgers to end the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium on August 22, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 22: Dakota Hudson #43 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates a groundball out of Manny Machado #8 of the Los Angeles Dodgers to end the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium on August 22, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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St. Louis Cardinals
ST. LOUIS, MO – SEPTEMBER 21: Harrison Bader #48 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates after hitting a double against the San Francisco Giants in the fifth inning at Busch Stadium on September 21, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

The end of a season is often sad especially when the St. Louis Cardinals aren’t playing in October. With the end, though, comes a recognition of successes during the season.

Now that the St. Louis Cardinals baseball season is over, it’s time to give out our team awards for the season. Even though there’s not a trophy or money in it for the winners, they do get clubhouse bragging rights for the entire 2019 season.

Rookie of the Year: Harrison Bader

Between Harrison Bader and Jack Flaherty, this was a very tough decision, but Bader has the upper hand here. Bader has taken the baseball world by storm with his eye-opening catches and speed on the diamond. Even the ladies of Cardinals Nation are starting to take notice, giving him the nickname “BAE-der”. Bader finishes the 2018 season with 12 home runs and a .264 BA, which are both very solid for a rookie.

The best part of his game though is his fascinating defensive play. He accumulated a 2.0 dWAR on the season, which is second out of all outfielders in the National League, behind Lorenzo Cain.

The crazy thing is he logged 200 less innings in the field than Cain, so his dWAR could have been higher, but the outfield was jammed before the Cardinals traded Tommy Pham and placed Dexter Fowler on the DL, freeing a full-time outfield spot for Bader.

Bader has a realistic chance of winning the Gold Glove in center field and will also finish very high on Rookie of the Year, and is your Redbird Rants Rookie of the Year.