The 2022 Chicago baseball awards

👋 Hi, it's Justin! The Chicago baseball season is officially over, as neither the White Sox nor the Cubs made the playoffs.

• So we're bringing you something even better than the postseason — our first ever annual Axios Chicago baseball awards!

Hitting

Here are the offensive leaders:

Average: José Abreu (.304) — The only local player to bat over .300.

Home runs: Patrick Wisdom (25) — Not bad for a player who missed 25 games because of injury.

Runs batted in: Andrew Vaughn (76) — Vaughn was somehow the closest player to 100 RBIs.

Strikeouts: Patrick Wisdom (183) — Yikes.

Stolen bases: Nico Hoerner (20) — Respectable.

Pitching

Almost exclusively Dylan Cease. The MVP of Chicago baseball will undoubtedly finish near the top in AL Cy Young voting.

• Earned run average: Cease (2.20).
• Wins: Cease (14).
• Strikeouts: Cease (227).
• Saves: Liam Hendriks (37).
• Mustache: Cease (looked good all year).

Best manager: Miguel Cairo. When he first took over for an ailing Tony La Russa, the Sox showed life by winning eight of 11 and getting back in the playoff race. It didn't last long.

Best social media obsession: White Sox Twitter and Leury García. Fans went ballistic whenever La Russa put García in the lineup.

Best double-goodbye: Remember when Willson Contreras got a standing ovation at Wrigley before the trade deadline? Then he wasn't traded? Good times.

Worst injury: Eloy Jimenez got hurt catching a fly ball.

Weirdest statue: Once again, the honor goes to the Harry Caray statue at Waveland and Sheffield. Forget haunted houses — take your kid to see this.