MLB Awards season is here. We get it started with the rookies, although there isn't much suspense in one of the races. Considering Corey Seager is a finalist for NL MVP, it's safe to say he'll be the Rookie of the Year winner. In fact, I'd be highly surprised if it's not unanimous.
Since there will likely be little surprise in the NL Rookie of the Year race, that's where we'll start. Seager will be the runaway winner. The Dodgers called him up last September, and he was so good that he was starting in the playoffs. Everyone knew he was going to be the early front runner for NL Rookie of the Year honors, and he did nothing to disprove that notion.
Seager's official rookie year wasn't quite as good as the one Kris Bryant put together last season. But it will likely lead to the same result--a unanimous Rookie of the Year selection. He hit .308 with 26 homers and 72 RBIs while playing phenomenal defense at short. I don't know why or how the Dodgers have had so many Rookie of the Year winners in franchise history (the freakin' award is named after Jackie Robinson!), but they're going to add another to that list.
The Dodgers actually have a 66.7 percent chance of securing their 17th Rookie of the Year selection. Because Kenta Maeda is one of the other finalists. Maeda had the unenviable task of stepping into the No. 2 spot in the rotation behind Clayton Kershaw, and he more than held his own to the tune of a 16-11 record and 3.48 ERA with 175 strikeouts. This was Maeda's first season in the Majors after several years in Japan, which once again brings up that whole discussion about whether or not he should be eligible for Rookie of the Year. Well, he's technically a rookie, so, yes, he should be eligible. And he's not going to win. Seager is. So, in this case, it's really a moot point.
On the highly unlikely chance the NL Rookie of the Year award ends up somewhere other than Southern California, it'll go to the team that the Dodgers vanquished in the Division Series. Trea Turner stepped in as the Nationals' center fielder and proved to be just as valuable an addition as MVP finalist Daniel Murphy. He hit .342 with 13 homers in just 307 at-bats and also stole 33 bases. I bet Turner likely broke up the two Dodgers and finished second in this race behind Seager.
Over in the American League, that's where things get interesting. Michael Fulmer is probably the favorite, but Gary Sanchez is the real story. The fact that he's a finalist despite playing just 53 games really is remarkable. Sanchez is the real deal. If he'd been with the Yankees all season, there's very little doubt he'd be as unanimous as Seager. As it is though, I think his two months, as great as they were, don't warrant being Rookie of the Year over someone who was in the Majors all season.
This actually reminds me of two recent Rookie of the Year races in the National League. In the first, the late Jose Fernandez edged out his countryman Yasiel Puig, mainly for that reason. Fernandez was in the Major Leagues all season, while Puig wasn't called up until June. Then the opposite happened with Jacob de Grom and Billy Hamilton, Jr. That time the Rookie of the Year went to de Grom, even though he only joined the Mets in June and Hamilton was the Reds' starting center fielder on Opening Day.
Sanchez's short time in the Majors obviously didn't disqualify him. And the fact that he's a finalist really does say a lot about how much the writers respect what he did over the span of two months. The season is six months long, though, which would be a disservice to the other two finalists. Which is why my vote would go to Michael Fulmer.
Fulmer was my midseason choice, and I really thought he should've been on the AL All-Star team. He faded down the stretch, but still finished with an 11-7 record and 3.06 ERA, which would've been third in the American League if he'd thrown enough innings to qualify (he ended up three short). Fulmer also had that ridiculous scoreless innings streak in May. In a nutshell, he was a remarkably consistent and reliable starter all season long for a Tigers team that, while it didn't make the playoffs, was in contention pretty much all year.
Detroit, of course, came up short in an AL Central race that was ultimately won by an Indians team that went all the way to the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series. Tyler Naquin is one of the reasons why they lost Game 6, but he's also one of the reasons they got as far as they did. He was platooning in center field in the postseason, but did play 116 regular season games and hit .296 (he also had a walk-off inside-the-park homer, which is just cool). Naquin pales in comparison to Fulmer and Sanchez, though.
So the real question is really whether or not Sanchez's remarkable two months trump Fulmer's great five (he was called up on April 29). My gut tells me no (which is the way I would've voted). I'm sure some voters did put Sanchez No. 1, which will probably make it close. But I think Michael Fulmer joins Justin Verlander as members of the Tigers rotation who've been Rookies of the Year.
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