SAN DIEGO — What a year for Pat Hughes.

And what a Winter Meetings for the Cubs as a franchise.

The day after the reported signings of Cody Bellinger and Jameson Taillon, Hughes was selected as the 2023 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award Wednesday morning — an accolade handed out to a broadcaster each year by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The radio voice of the Cubs is the 47th winner of the prestigious award and will be honored during the Hall of Fame Awards presentation in Cooperstown in late July.

Hughes was among 10 finalists for this year’s award and ultimately beat out fellow broadcasters such as Steve Stone, Duane Kuiper and Gary Cohen.

2022 marked Hughes’ 27th season with the Cubs and his 40th as a baseball broadcaster. He has had a chance to call some of the biggest moments in franchise history, including the final out of the 2016 World Series.

On the final day of the 2022 regular season, Hughes was notified he would be one of the 10 finalists for the Ford C. Frick Award. He admitted that it is something that has bounced around his head a lot in the two months since.

“It’s something that you can’t help but think about because it’s a possibility and it’s the third different time I’ve been on the ballot,” Hughes said. “It’s something you never would take for granted and you don’t expect it to happen and you don’t think, ‘oh yeah, I’m in. I’m gonna be there.’

“You’re not sure because there’s so many other good people that have a chance. You just keep on keeping on. You keep on working as hard as you can. You keep doing the best job that you can but that has nothing to do with the Hall of Fame.”

A few minutes before the award was announced publicly on Wednesday, Hughes found out that he had earned a trip to the Hall of Fame.

Josh Rawitch, the president of the Hall of Fame, called Hughes to let him know while he sat in his living room with his wife, Trish, Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney and a film crew.

“He was nice enough to say, ‘Pat, congratulations, you are this year’s Ford C. Frick Award winner’ and I could feel kind of a strange sensation in my head like, ‘oh my gosh, I’m actually the guy. I’m gonna be a Hall of Famer,'” Hughes said. “And I didn’t really hear anything he had to say after, ‘congratulations, you’re going into the Hall of Fame.'”

“… It’s been a very special day. I found out earlier today but it still hasn’t sunk in. To tell you the truth, being named to the Cubs Hall of Fame hasn’t completely sunk in yet, either.”

The national Hall of Fame nod comes on the heels of Hughes’ induction into the Cubs’ Hall of Fame this summer.

Kenney surprised Hughes with the Cubs Hall of Fame news live on the air back in August, making for one of the most wholesome moments of the season.