Marcell Ozuna

The winner won't have to make a special trip to pick up his hardware, since both Judge and Ohtani will be in attendance, of course. We imagine Judge will be the pick here, but we'll see. Other so-called "finalists" for the awards are Judge, Witt and Jose Ramirez for AL Outstanding Player; Ohtani, Francisco Lindor and Marcell Ozuna for NL Outstanding Player; Emmanuel Clase, Logan Gilbert and Tarik Skubal for AL Outstanding Pitcher; Chris Sale, Paul Skenes and Zack Wheeler for NL Outstanding Pitcher; Wilyer Abreu, Colton Cowser and Austin Wells for AL Outstanding Rookie and Jackson Chourio, Jackson Merrill and Skenes for NL Outstanding Rookie.

The Braves are planning to exercise their 2025 club options on designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, left-hander Aaron Bummer and catcher Travis d’Arnaud, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos implied as much at today’s end-of-season press conference, saying each has “put himself in a good spot.” All three had strong seasons…

The Braves are planning to exercise their 2025 club options on designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, left-hander Aaron Bummer and catcher Travis d’Arnaud, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. President of baseball operations implied as much at today’s end-of-season press conference, saying each has “put himself in a good spot.” All three had strong seasons — Ozuna…

Ozuna's $16 million option had become an easy call, and expectations were always that d'Arnaud would be back, whether it was through the $8 million option year or not. Bummer was the tougher call at $7.25 million. He pitched 55 1/3 innings with a 3.58 ERA this year.

We wondered if the Braves might stick with d'Arnaud here, but they're keeping with the regular-season scheme. Aside from d'Arnaud's stint on the paternity list last month, he and Murphy have strictly alternated games. The last time either started two in a row was Aug. 31-Sept. 1, when d'Arnaud played back-to-backs. The Game 2 lineup: CF Michael Harris II, 2B Ozzie Albies, DH Marcell Ozuna, 1B Matt Olsen, RF Jorge Soler, LF Ramon Laurearno, 3B Gio Urshela, C Murphy, SS Orlando Arcia.