Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant and Astros shortstop Carlos Correa have been named Rookie of the Year in their respective leagues by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Bryant won the award in unanimous fashion, beating out second-place finisher Matt Duffy of the Giants. Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang, Noah Syndergaard of the Mets and Justin Bour of the Marlins finished third through fifth, with each player garnering multiple points in the voting. The Dodgers’ Joc Pederson and Cardinals’ Stephen Piscotty each received a third-place vote, earning each one point.
Bryant, 23, entered the year with considerable hype after decimating Triple-A pitching in 2014. There was some outrage when it was announced that he’d begin the season in the minor leaguers, but he was quickly promoted to the Majors (uncoincidentally as soon as his free agency had been delayed by one year) and quickly established himself as one of the premier third basemen in the game. Bryant batted .275/.369/.488 with 26 home runs and 13 stolen bases this season while also delivering strong defense at third base and even contributing in the outfield.
The race in the American League was much closer, with Correa narrowly edging out fellow shortstop Francisco Lindor. Correa received 17 first-place votes and 13 second-place votes, whereas Lindor received 13 first-place votes and 14 second-place votes. Trailing the two were young Twins slugger Miguel Sano, Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna, A’s center fielder Billy Burns, Twins left fielder Eddie Rosario and Rangers center fielder Delino DeShields Jr.
Correa batted an impressive .279/.345/.512 with 22 homers and 14 steals. Wins above replacement measures liked Lindor better for the award due to his superior glove and on-base percentage, but Correa slugged 10 more homers and knocked in more runs, likely widening the gap in the eyes of many voters. Most pundits agreed that either would be a fine choice for the award given the exceptional seasons enjoyed by each.
DeSheilds got a vote?
He got 1 3rd place vote for a Texas voter.
I am not saying Delino is in the same class as some of these other rookies, but he did deserve some recognition. The Texas Rangers season turned completely around when he took over in CF and hit in the 1 hole. He was a solid contributer as a Rule 5 draftee.
Duffy should’ve won. Duffy, Syndergaard, Bryant, Kang.
Really?
if it was a fair assessment – yeah – but people like HRs better than doubles and triples sadly.
Literally the only things Duffy did better was hit for a higher batting average and play better defense. And, well, despite the higher batting average Duffy’s OBP was 30 points lower than Bryant’s and his SLG was 60 points lower. As far as the defense is concerned, Duffy played basically elite level defense at 3B while Bryant was -merely- very, very good defensively.
Every, and I mean every, other statistical category outside of strikeouts went in Bryant’s favor.
Bryant lead in HR, RBI, OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS , WAR, SB and was a middle of the order bat on the 3rd best team in baseball.
Duffy had a really, really good year, but Bryant should (and did) have won.
My only real complaint was that Justin Bour got a vote and Odubel Herrera, Maikel Franco, Addison Russell, Chris Heston and Randell Grichuk all didn’t get a single vote.
I can see why heston didn’t, if you eliminate half his starts he should get the cy young – but the other half were really bad. It was a great rookie year for a pitcher but not ROY material.
I’m not gonna make a case for Chris Heston because obviously that would be foolish, but I’m just saying that Heston > Bour.
Would say Jungmann should have been mentioned above most as well
if you have to eliminate half a guys body of work to justify a 3rd place vote… he doesn’t deserve even that much…
Bryant has likely hit his ceiling; good year, but maybe Duffy should’ve gotten more consideration for doing well on a team that wasn’t nearly as talented as Chicago.
lol, his ceiling is 40 homers.
I preferred the 1-10 voting system for this reason, it recognized performance even as an “honorable mention”
Pretty ridiculous.. emphasis on Franco, Russell, and Grichuk
Obviously the voters think otherwise considering Bryant was a unanimous winner. Bryant had 26 hrs and 99 rbis. Duffy’s number were great and if it were any other year he probably would have won but statistically, Bryant had better numbers in the major categories.
Keep crying. Bryant deserves it.
Coming from a big Giants fan, no, Duffy wasn’t the rookie of the year. He was brilliant, not to mention surprising, but he isn’t a superstar. He has yet to truly utilise his speed, he power isn’t a large factor, and his first-half defense wasn’t much to brag about. Bryant won it fair and square.
Nothing like watching that guy strike out 200 times. Duffy had a high batting average with double digits home runs, high RBI, and great defense.
Bryant drove in 17.2% of the runners on base for him, Duffy 16.7%
cool stat, where did you find it?
Bryant was 5th among all 3b in UZR, hit over twice the HRs, had an OPS 100 points higher, a higher OBP, and more total bases than Duffy.
but sure, let’s give it to Duffy because K’s….
Duffy hit .295 to Bryant’s .275 and still lagged behind in OBP by 35 points and SLG by 60 points. Duffy played in 2 fewer games and had 16 fewer extra base hits, 14 of which were home runs (28/6/12 for Duffy, 31/5/26 for Bryant). Bryant’s defense was merely very, very good while Duffy’s was elite. Meanwhile, Duffy’s baserunning was merely very, very good while Bryant’s was elite.
I knew Duffy wouldn’t win. I’m just glad we now have a 3B who actually works hard and WANTS to be great!
How quickly fans forget postseason heroics that won a world series
That doesn’t really change the fact that Sandoval was always out of shape and other than 2011, was never really THAT good.
He was benched in 2010. He also admitted he doesn’t ever watch film and also doesn’t care about his health. He could be a .330 30HR guy if he really tried.
Watch out for a huge sophomore slump from Duffy. He isn’t that good, not even close. Show me a hitter that had better numbers in the majors than the minors, and I’ll show you a hitter that’s due to regress.
Brandon Crawford
Josh Donaldson is another guy that figured things out in the bigs. Duffy will have a slump, sure. But his tendency to go the other way will help him not have a large sophomore slump. Although I think Bryant is the deserved winner, I see more of a slump from him. But Bryant will be great and Duffy will be a very good player too.
Mike Trout’s been better in every Major League season than any Minor League season. It’s really not that uncommon.
Seriously?
@Tommet…
Yeah seriously. Russell will end up being the better infielder of the two. Bryant will find himself too streaky.
Wherever you got your crystal ball at, I’ll take 2 please
Where is the love for Mookie Betts?? I’d wager his WAR was right up there wih Correa and Lindor.
Not a rookie.
Really? Well that would explain it.
No one cares about a guy from a last place team. Correa and Bryant deserve these awards.
His rookie year was 2014. Has 189 ABs that season.
Who are some non-Corey Seager candidates to keep an eye on next year?
It seems much more up in the air. If giolito, Crawford, glasnow, mallex, or arcia break camp they all have good chances. I don’t know if matz lost eligibility.
Matz, Crawford, Olivera, Park, Son, Trea Turner, and Joey Gallo are some to keep an eye on.
Then there is always Blake Snell, who had a 1.41 ERA over 130+ IP this year in the minors.
Robert Stephenson, Steven Matz, Lucas Giolito, Tyler Glasnow, Trea Turner. Really a class of mainly pitchers, but odds are it will be either Seager or Glasnow
I think A.J. Reed might be your most likely candidate to put up gaudy numbers. Probably won’t be up to start the year, but I’d expect to see him in Houston pretty early.
Of course a Cardinals fan would know about the Astros MiLB system…
Not to hate on correa but lindor looked so much more polished. Better fielder, better plate discipline, better war.
Too bad the voters are so enamored with power.
Not just power, Correa hits well to all fields, has insane range at SS even though Lindor had more runs saved, and was a leader on a playoff team at age 21.
Correa is just a special player that transcends raw numbers.
To be fair, that’s about as close of a vote you can get. They clearly loved Lindor as well. I think if Lindor had lit the world up in his first 2 weeks (he didn’t), this would be a different conversation. That said, he’s an exciting player to watch going forward. He only got better as his season went on.
Great! Feel like the right guys won. Congrats to them both.
Yea but who’s got a better ceiling
Bryant over Duffy hands down. Correa and Lindor are pretty equally matched in upside, it depends on if you value Correa’s power over Lindor’s glove, speed, and contact. I want to say Lindor has a slight edge as he’s the more typically ‘toolsy’ guy, but again it’s very close.
Duffy should have won we’ll see who will have the better career. Duffy batted 2nd and 3rd most of the season Bryant batted 5th or lower I think they’re just giving it to the Cubs cause they finally made the post season.
No, they’re giving it to Bryant because stats.
Those darn numbers ruin a lot of people’s best opinions
Bryant hit 5th or lower in 143 PAs and 4th or higher in 422.
If you’re going to complain, base it on facts.
15 triples, 13 home runs for Rosario. Hot damn. He can’t get on base to save his life but that combination of power and speed is very intriguing.
Things are looking good in Twinkietown!
Bryant hit 5th or lower after he started to slump Duffy excelled. If your gonna comment say it how it is.
‘how it is’ was Bryant mostly hit in the 2 or 3 hole all year, rarely lower than 4th. Bryant slumped for July, then out hit Duffy by a considerable margin through the end of September.
you can check the stats for yourself by merely click on the highlighted name of each player in the original story, if you’re still confused.
Congrats to both of them.
The only one confused is you. If Bryant out hit him then why did Duffy have the better b.a. And more hits do some research you moron!
cursory research would reveal to you a ‘reply’ button at the bottom of each individual post.
but even cursory research does not appear to be your strong suit. You see, there’s this great site called baseball-reference, where you can find numerous stats for each individual player. and if you’re computer savvy enough to use tabs, you can even compare them side by side as i am doing right now between Duffy, who had 169 total hits compared to Bryant’s 154… but Bryant still managed to compile 28 more actual bases than Duffy in spite of the lower number of hits.
that might not make sense to someone like you, who doesn’t appear to like thinking about such things, but mostly it’s because Bryant walked more (47 times more) and hit for a lot more power than Duffy (slugging percentage, which is basically average number of bases per hit, gives Bryant a 60 point edge over Duffy in the regard).
So yeah, to get back to you original post, which you completely made up because Bryant hit 4th or lower just as often as Duffy. If the only 2 categories you can find that give Duffy the offensive edge are batting average and total number of hits… it means Bryant was still the overall better hitter. Especially late in the season where his OPS (that’s on base plus slugging… which effectively means average number of bases per at bat) was about 250 points higher than Duffy’s in august and september.
Shall we continue researching, or do you want to make up another reason why you think Duffy got robbed?
I’ll use the reply if that makes you happy. And I’ll tell you this Duffy had a better average and more hits in less p.a’s and in my opinion that is the most important stat. I know baseball and I know my giants. You might know computers and how to bring up comparable stats but that’s because you probably sit on here and wait for people to comment so you can disagree because you have nothing better to do. It’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it.
the first amendment does give you every right to be as earnestly wrong as you like to be, that is true. of course having an opinion and having a valid opinion are two very different things.
if you’re going to throw out every stat you don’t like just because it doesn’t support what you wish was true, don’t expect a lot of support on internet forums. friendly advice.
the first amendment does give you every right to be as earnestly wrong as you like to be, that is true. of course having an opinion and having a valid opinion are two very different things.
if you’re going to throw out every stat you don’t like just because it doesn’t support what you wish was true, don’t expect a lot of support on internet forums. friendly advice,
I never asked for your support or your opinion. I guess I missed the part where some moron with no life will disagree with you if you post on here. And I’m not throwing out stats I just take in to consideration what park they play in. And you can shove your friendly advice!
Sure, batting average is nice, but there’s a reason Dee Gordon didn’t win MVP. Hit totals are far from everything in baseball
Two completely different hitters.
My Opinion
2015 Rookie All Star Team
2C DET James McCann
1B MIA Justin Bour
2B ATL Jace Peterson
3B CHC Kris Bryant
SS CLE Francisco Lindor
OF MIN Eddie Rosario
OF PHI Odubel Herrera
OF OAK Billy Burns
SP NYN Noah Syndergaard
RP SEA Carson Smith
Hon Mention 3B SFG Matt Duffy SS HOU Carlos Correa
Osuna is more deserving than smith
two very talented young men with great futures.
You know you’re wearing some hardcore biased glasses if you honestly think Duffy deserved it over Bryant
Duffy was awesome and unexpected, but he was not ROY.
Anyone know who was the last MLB team to have all three players with the ROY, MOY, and Cy young award in same year?