Bryant, Lester, Hendricks Maddon finalists for major awards

Less than a week after their Game 7 thrill ride to a championship the franchise had chased for a century, the Cubs had three players and the manager land on finalist lists for three major postseason awards.

That includes second-year third baseman Kris Bryant, a two-time All-Star and last year’s National League Rookie of the Year, joining the Nationals’ Daniel Murphy and the Dodgers’ Corey Seager as a finalist for the NL Most Valuable Player award.

Two of the three finalists for the NL Cy Young Award are Cubs: Jon Lester and major-league ERA leader Kyle Hendricks. The Nationals’ Max Scherzer is the other.

And Joe Maddon, the reigning NL Manager of the Year, joins the Nationals’ Dusty Baker and the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts on the finalist list. Maddon also has two AL awards.

The finalists were announced Monday by MLB and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.