Kershaw, Mattingly, Puig on BBWAA awards short list

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers Clayton Kershaw (Cy Young), Don Mattingly (Manager) and Yasiel Puig (Rookie) are finalists for the Baseball Writers' Association of America's season-ending awards, it was announced on Tuesday.

Kershaw is a finalist for the National League Cy Young Award, which he won in 2011. The other contenders are Miami's Jose Fernandez and St. Louis' Adam Wainwright.

Mattingly is a finalist for NL Manager of the Year. The other finalists are Atlanta's Fredi Gonzalez and Pittsburgh's Clint Hurdle.

Puig is a finalist for NL Rookie of the Year. The other finalists are Fernandez and St. Louis' Shelby Miller.

The Dodgers' three candidates tie St. Louis and Detroit for the most in the Majors.

Kershaw (16-9) became the first Dodger to win three consecutive ERA titles with a 1.83 mark, the first Major Leaguer since Greg Maddux (1993-95) to accomplish the feat. He led the Major Leagues with a 0.92 WHIP, led the National League with 232 strikeouts and ranked among NL leaders with 236 innings pitched (second), 16 wins (tied for third), a .195 opponents' batting average (second), three complete games (tied for third), two shutouts (tied for first) and seven pickoffs (second).

His 1.83 ERA was the lowest for a Major League starter since Pedro Martinez's 1.74 in 2000 and the lowest in the NL since Maddux's 1.63 in 1995. It's the lowest for a pitcher with at least 220 innings since Doc Gooden's 1.55 in 1985. The only other Los Angeles Dodger with a sub-2.00 ERA is Sandy Koufax (three times).

Kershaw also was selected to his third All-Star team in 2013 and won the Roy Campanella Award for the Dodgers player that best exemplifies Campanella's spirit and leadership. On Monday, Kershaw was named winner of the Players Choice Award for the National League Outstanding Pitcher.

Mattingly just completed his third season as Dodgers manager, during which the club unleashed its greatest in-season comeback in franchise history and was the runaway winner of the NL West. The Dodgers clinched the division title on Sept. 19, the earliest in Los Angeles' history, and won by 11 games, the largest margin in team history.

All of this came with Mattingly in the final season of a three-year contract, with a 2014 club option vesting when the Dodgers defeated the Braves in the NL Division Series to advance to the Championship Series, where they were eliminated by the Cardinals in six games.

Under Mattingly, the Dodgers have had three consecutive winning seasons and one postseason appearance.

Puig, a 22-year-old Cuban defector signed last summer to a $42 million, seven-year contract, was promoted from Double-A Chattanooga on June 3, and together with Hanley Ramirez, he jump-started the club's comeback with an historic debut.

In June, he hit .436 with a .713 slugging percentage and won NL Player and Rookie of the Month honors, only the fifth to accomplish that parlay and the first to do it in his first month. He hit four home runs in his first five games and his 44 hits that month were the second-most for a player in his first month since Joe DiMaggio had 48 in May 1936.

On the season, his .319 average was the second-best for a Los Angeles Dodgers rookie behind James Loney's .331 in 2007. His 19 home runs were the most for a Dodgers rookie since Mike Piazza's 35 in 1993. The Dodgers were 66-38 in games Puig appeared.