Fan voting underway for Esurance MLB Awards
Winners in 24 categories will receive GIBBY trophies
Online fan voting at MLB.com and the official club sites begins today for the 2015 Esurance MLB Awards, an expanded awards program that recognizes Major League players, baseball fans and memorable moments in unique categories and not limited by league affiliation. The 2015 Esurance MLB Awards are officially sanctioned by Major League Baseball and its voting will culminate with a first-of-its-kind multi-platform special, The 2015 Esurance MLB Awards Show, airing Friday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. ET exclusively on MLB Network and MLB.com.
The 2015 Esurance MLB Awards represents a comprehensive award-balloting process based on nearly two months of voting, encompassing the entire awards season. The five different groups of voters -- fans, members of the baseball media, club front-office personnel, former MLB players and Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) members -- each count for 20 percent of the winner selection. Winners in each category will receive the trophy known as the GIBBY (Greatness in Baseball).
• Vote for the Esurance MLB Awards
Featuring 24 award categories, supplemental to the traditional awards and built in part from the MLB.com GIBBY Awards and the MLB Network Social Media Awards, the 2015 Esurance MLB Awards include such performance-based categories as Best Major Leaguer, Best Bounceback Player and Best Breakout Player. The awards also feature a number of categories outside the field of play, such as Best Social Media Personality, Best Fan Catch, Best Video Board Moment, Best Interview and Best Celebrity Fan. Fans can vote exclusively at MLB.com/awards and the 30 Club websites across computers, smartphones and tablets. Online fan voting for all awards will end Friday, Nov. 13 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Nominees for each of the 24 award categories will be revealed over the remainder of the 2015 Championship Season and Postseason, beginning today with Best Major Leaguer, Best Everyday Player, Best Starting Pitcher and Best Rookie. During the course of voting, additional contenders may emerge in any respective category and could be added to the ballot. Visit MLB.com/awards for the complete list of nominees in each category.
In the four categories where online fan voting begins today, the GIBBY trophy winners over the past three years were:
Best Major Leaguer: Clayton Kershaw (2014); Miguel Cabrera (2013); Cabrera (2012)
Best Everyday Player: Mike Trout (2014); Miguel Cabrera (2013); Cabrera (2012)
Best Starting Pitcher: Kershaw (2014); Kershaw (2013); R.A. Dickey (2012)
Best Rookie: Jose Abreu (2014); Jose Fernandez (2013); Trout (2012)
The majority of the 2015 Esurance MLB Awards winners will be announced during the multi-platform special hosted by Brian Kenny and Dan Plesac from MLB Network's Studio 21 on Friday, Nov. 20. Six winners will be revealed separately from the telecast: four will be announced on MLB.com, the MLB.com At Bat mobile app, and on official MLB social media accounts including Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook that same day, while the awards for Best Manager and Best Executive will be announced and presented in-person to the winners on MLB Network and MLB.com from the 2015 Winter Meetings in December.