NEW YORK -- Juan Soto was quite clearly one of the best hitters in baseball this season. Edwin Díaz was obviously one of the best relievers.
For their efforts, Soto and Díaz earned places on Major League Baseball’s All-MLB first and second team presented by MGM Rewards, respectively. Soto is one of three outfielders on the first team, along with Aaron Judge and Julio Rodríguez. Díaz is one of two relievers on the second team, along with Andrés Muñoz. (Aroldis Chapman and Jhoan Duran are the first-team relievers.)
The winners were announced at the third annual MLB Awards ceremony Thursday in Las Vegas.
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The All-MLB Team was introduced in 2019 to honor players’ full-season contributions, given that All-Star selections are based on first-half performance. Fans voted at MLB.com to help choose first- and second-team selections at each position (including three outfielders, a DH, five starting pitchers and two relievers) among this year’s nominees. The awards only take regular-season contributions into consideration, so neither Soto nor Díaz were penalized for the Mets not making the playoffs.
Those two also earned their honors despite slow starts to the season. Soto’s was notably sluggish, with a .224/.352/.393 slash line as late as the morning of May 30. From that point forward, however, Soto was arguably the league’s best hitter, batting .285/.418/.596 with 35 homers and 31 stolen bases over his final 105 games. He stole 38 bags in total, more than tripling his previous career high, while finishing with 43 homers and 105 RBIs. That gave Soto the 16th 40-30 season in MLB history.
In addition, Soto led the National League in walks and on-base percentage.
For Soto, it was his fifth All-MLB Team selection, including his fourth First Team honor. He was also voted to the First Team last year with the Yankees, as well as in both 2020 and '21 as a member of the Nationals.
"It's great, I'm really happy to be top three again this season," Soto said on the red carpet at MLB Awards. "We worked hard; came up short as a team. But something we can take from 2025."
“When you are talking about the numbers, it’s something special,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said in September. “You compare him to some of the greatest players that ever played this game when you look at the numbers.”
Díaz similarly started slowly, battling velocity issues in April while posting a 5.59 ERA over his first 10 appearances. From that point forward, he morphed back into one of the game’s most electric relievers, producing a 0.95 ERA with 83 strikeouts over his final 56 2/3 innings. Díaz’s season-long rate of 13.3 strikeouts per nine innings ranked fourth among pitchers with at least 65 innings.
Along the way, Díaz converted 28 of his 31 save opportunities and made his third career All-Star team. He became a free agent after the season.
"I love New York. I would love to stay in New York, but if I have to go another place, I would be happy," Díaz said on the red carpet. "I want to win a ring, so wherever I go, I want to win a ring and enjoy the time.
"I like the organization. You know, if they came with the best deal for me, I’d enjoy to stay with them."
MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand contributed to this report from Las Vegas.