Bobby Witt Jr. is a Players Choice Award finalist, but what about other KC Royals?

Kansas City Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. — nominated already for the Hank Aaron Award and an American League Gold Glove, a legitimate candidate for AL MVP, and a certainty to win the club's Les Milgram Player of the Year award that he's grabbed twice before — is up for yet another major honor. This time, it's his peers that are honoring him.

The Major League Baseball Players Association announced the finalists for its Players Choice Awards on Monday, and Witt Jr., the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani are the candidates for the union's Player of the Year. Witt Jr. is also a finalist for the AL Outstanding Player Award. Winners will be revealed before Game 2 of the World Series, currently scheduled for Oct. 6, on FOX's pregame show.

Witt Jr.'s nomination is no surprise — he, Judge, and Ohtani are the three players most often mentioned as tops in the majors. The Kansas City shortstop's .332 average and 211 hits were the best in the big leagues, and he's the first shortstop to twice record the achievement of 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in a single season.

But had things broken differently, two other Royals could have been in the MLBPA's POY conversation.

Seth Lugo and Salvador Pérez had good seasons, but slumps hurt them

Lugo, a nominee for an AL Gold Glove, spent much of this season in the American League Cy Young spotlight. He was 11-2 with a 2.17 ERA and 14 quality starts when June ended, but the rest of the way, he went a demoralizing 5-7 with a 4.07 ERA, and gave up five or more runs on five separate occasions.

He finished the campaign with a more than respectable 3.00 ERA and 16-9 record, but had Lugo pitched in the season's second half the way he did in the first, he could have been the majors' only 20-game winner and a sure bet for the Cy Young.

And although he's a pitcher, he might have been a POY finalist.

Pérez had a similar experience. Going into June, he was batting .315 with 10 homers, 41 RBI, and a .354 OBP, but he soon dipped to .244 the rest of the way, including a .194 June and .239 September. Pérez still finished with a .271/.330/.456 line, 27 homers, and 104 RBI — one of the best seasons of his career — but had his numbers not fallen over the last three-plus months, he, like Lugo, might have been up for the POY.

KC Royals starter Seth Lugo was snubbed for another MLBPA award

The honor for which Lugo definitely should be competing is the union's AL Outstanding Pitcher award — but he isn't.

Instead, the award will go to the Detroit Tigers' Tarik Skubal, the Seattle Mariners' Logan Gilbert, or the Cleveland Guardians' Emmanuel Clase, but leaving Lugo out of the running isn't right.

Skubal and Clase have justifiable nominations. At 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA, Skubal led the league in wins, had the best ERA among qualified starters, and held opposing hitters to a .201 average and 0.92 WHIP. While the discussion of whether relievers shouldn't be considered for best overall pitcher awards is one for another day, Clase's nomination is understandable considering he led the AL with 47 saves, 66 games finished, and Win Probability Added, and had the league's best reliever ERA (0.61) and WHIP (0.66).

But Gilbert over Lugo? No.

Gilbert finished the campaign with a 9-12 record — seven fewer wins and three more losses than Lugo — and his 3.23 ERA was almost a third of a run higher than Lugo's. Yes, Gilbert pitched more innings than Lugo (208.2 to 206.2), but both started the same number of games (33), and Lugo meant more to his team's finish than Gilbert. The Royals wouldn't have made it to postseason play without Lugo, but Gilbert's nine victories weren't even the most on his club (George Kirby had 14, Bryce Miller 12, and Luis Castillo 11).

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