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 – MAY 21: Miles Mikolas #39 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates after throwing a complete game against the Kansas City Royals at Busch Stadium on May 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.

Cy Young: Miles Mikolas

This one is obvious, and we all know it. Miles Mikolas basically came out of nowhere and put up a fantastic season for the St. Louis Cardinals.

After a horrid 2014 campaign with the Texas Rangers, he went across the earth to play baseball for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan.

After a very solid season in Yomiuri, Mikolas decided to give the MLB another shot. There were multiple teams after him, including the Chicago Cubs, but Mikolas ultimately decided to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Mikolas was one of the best pitchers in the entire National League this season. He had the fourth-lowest ERA in the NL, and also was tied for the NL lead in wins. The key to his success was throwing more strikes. Free passes were a huge reason why he struggled in Texas, but an improved command played a huge part in Mikolas’s resurgence in St. Louis.

Mikolas finished the season with a 2.83 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP, which led the team in both categories. He also struck out 146 batters, which was second on the team behind Jack Flaherty.

He even made his first career All-Star team, but did not participate in All-Star festivities due to his wife going into labor right before the All-Star Game. Since Mikolas pitched the Sunday before, he would not have been able to pitch during the game itself anyways.

The St. Louis Cardinals needed another starter going into the 2018 season, and John Mozeilak took a risk going with Mikolas in the rotation after an up-and-down Spring Training. Safe to say it has paid off, and Miles Mikolas is your Redbird Rants Cy Young winner.