3 major awards Angels players have a chance to win in 2023

The Los Angeles Angels might not be the best team in baseball, but they've got a lot of talent on their roster.

With good talent comes a chance to win awards. While we want to see the Angels win the World Series, it's also cool to watch our players have outstanding years and take home awards.

Here are three different awards Angels players can win in 2023.

1) The LA Angels have two different MVP candidates

Not many teams can say this, but the Angels have two players who can compete for the MVP award. Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani are arguably the two best players in all of baseball and they are in this discussion every season. As long as they are healthy, they will always be in consideration.

Trout had an MVP-caliber season in 2022 but only played in 119 games. This severely hurt his case as he hit 40 home runs while not even having enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. Trout still had a .999 OPS, a 178 OPS+, won a Silver Slugger, and finished eighth in the balloting despite missing 43 games.

If Trout is healthy in 2023, which has been a lot to ask for of late, he will be at the forefront of the conversation.

Shohei Ohtani is another player who will easily find himself in the center of the conversation. Ohtani is a superstar at the plate and on the mound. It took a historic season that saw Aaron Judge hit an American League record 62 home runs and post 11.4 fWAR to top Ohtani, and he didn't even win the award unanimously!

Ohtani is likely the favorite every season for the MVP award as it takes this kind of historic season to top him.

2) The LA Angels can have their third ever Cy Young award winner

Shohei Ohtani will be at the center of the MVP conversation but he should also be discussed among the best pitchers in the game. We all know about his bat, but I feel like his pitching was the best part of his game this past season.

Ohtani went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA in 28 starts and 166 innings pitched. He struck out a league-leading 11.9/9 while walking just 2.4/9. He had a 172 ERA+ and a 2.40 FIP. For some reason he wasn't a Cy Young finalist, but did finish fourth in the balloting behind Justin Verlander, Dylan Cease, and Alek Manoah.

The only one of the finalists who you can say definitively had a better year than Ohtani is Verlander. He now pitches in the National League with the Mets. Cease and Manoah had great years, but I think Ohtani could've finished second in the balloting.

With that in mind, what if Ohtani repeats the season he just had? That, and the fact that he's going to make more starts give him a great chance at winning his first Cy Young.

A sleeper candidate could be Tyler Anderson. Everyone expects him to take a step back after a monster 2022 but what if he doesn't? What if he has a repeat or even improves from his career year?He could easily find himself in the conversation at least.