Reds second baseman Jonathan India and Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena have been voted the 2021 Rookie of the Year in the National League and American League, respectively, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced Monday evening.
India, 24, won in near-unanimous fashion, securing 29 of 30 first-place votes. Marlins lefty Trevor Rogers took the lone other first-place vote, as well as 26 second-place votes. Arozarena, meanwhile, received 22 of 30 first-place votes, securing a decisive victory of his own.
The No. 5 overall draft pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, India had actually seen his prospect stock slide a bit coming into the 2021 season, as he’d dropped off the majority of Top 100 rankings of note. He apparently didn’t get that memo, however, as the former Florida Gators standout took the second base job in Cincinnati and ran with it.
The Reds deserve some credit for sticking with India early on, as he scuffled through a rough first month of the season, hitting just .239/.316/.358 in April. He improved those numbers across the board in May but still checked in below the league average in terms of overall offensive output. With a couple months of big league reps under his belt, however, India found his stride and never looked back.
India slashed .303/.425/.455 in the month of June and was considerably above the league average with the bat in each of the season’s three subsequent months. From June 1 through season’s end, India raked at a .281/.390/.493 pace with a huge 11.9% walk rate and a 22.5% strikeout rate. On the whole, he ended the year with a hearty .269/.376/.459 batting line, adding in 21 home runs, 34 doubles, two triples and a dozen steals (in 15 tries). With the glove, both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating pegged him as average at second base. Statcast’s Outs Above Average was much more bearish, grading him at minus-7, but both Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs alike graded him out at 3.9 Wins Above Replacement. Cincinnati can now control India through 2026.
Arozarena, 26, burst onto the scene with one of the most impressive postseason showings in recent memory during the Rays’ 2020 World Series run and retained his rookie eligibility into 2021. While he didn’t dominate at quite those same levels this season, the former Cardinals farmhand turned in a robust .274/.356/.459 batting line with 20 home runs, 32 doubles, three triples and 20 steals (in 30 tries) through 604 plate appearances. Baseball-Reference valued him at 4.1 wins above replacement, while FanGraphs pegged him at 3.3.
Acquired alongside Jose Martinez in the trade that sent top pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore to St. Louis, Arozarena has cemented himself as an everyday outfielder and a building block in the Tampa Bay lineup for the next few seasons. In addition to his strong blend of power and speed at the plate, Arozarena drew positive defensive marks in both Defensive Runs Saved (3) and Outs Above Average (1). Like India, he can be controlled all the way through the 2026 season.
India, Rogers and Cardinals outfielder Dylan Carlson took home the overwhelming majority of votes in National League balloting. Also receiving some stray third-place votes were Cubs infielders Patrick Wisdom and Frank Schwindel; Braves right-hander Ian Anderson; Pirates closer David Bednar; and India’s teammates Tyler Stephenson and Vladimir Gutierrez.
In the American League, it was Astros right-hander Luis Garcia taking second place on the strength of two first-place votes and 15 second-place votes. Arozarena’s teammate, Wander Franco, finished third place and garnered a pair of first-place votes. Rangers center fielder Adolis Garcia received three first-place votes but landed fourth overall, while Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase received the other first-place vote. Ryan Mountcastle of the Orioles, Shane McClanahan of the Rays and Alek Manoah of the Blue Jays all landed some second- and/or third-place votes as well.
A full breakdown of the National League voting and full breakdown of American League voting are available at the BBWAA’s web site.
im surprised India won so decisively. Rogers missed time, but was otherwise stellar.
Wait a minute, I thought Jonathan changed his last name to Guardia?
This shouldn’t be this funny, am I that tired?
It is funny though,
It’s actually hilarious.
Cool I’m not the only one lol
He couldn’t… there’s a Roller Derby player in Cincy with that name, already
Same here, when you look at WAR all three players were very close, so they must have valued the extra great american ball park homeruns.
Not surprised Arozarena won though, not in the slightest
A lot of times if it’s close they will give it to the guy who is running out of rookie status. If Rogers is still eligible to win ROY next season it doesn’t surprise me that they gave it to India. Rogers has another year to prove his case. They also don’t value WAR the same way a lot of people do. It’s a very inaccurate statistic. They prefer playing time over WAR. They will give the award to a guy who has 3 WAR over a full season before they give it to a guy who has 2.9 WAR over half a season. Voters don’t tend to see a lack of playing time as a disadvantage to a player. They see it as the player being less valuable to the team. I’m not arguing either way but this is what I have heard writers, managers and players say.
Umm, no…you’re only eligible once – when you hit the IP/PA/service minimums. Rogers is most definitely not ROY eligible again after this season.
12 of his 21 HRs were on the road
It was Hal McCoy from the Cincinnati Chapter of the BBWAA kept India from being a unanimous selection.
It was Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs from the Cincy Chapter of the BBWAA
Mountcastle would of won but War hates him
Or maybe he hates WAR
WAR? What is it good for?
Writing a song about WAR and asking what it’s good for, that’s about all
Absolutely nothing
Cool.
Say it again
War really is a pretty crappy situation.
WAR
It ain’t nothin but a heartbreaker
Friend only to the undertaker
Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Imagine this getting any upvotes lol. Randy is a better hitter, fielder, and baserunner. I’m pretty sure that makes him the better player mate. Stop being so naive and grow with the times. Randy is simply the better player. War doesn’t hate mountcastle. He’s just simply not that good.
Yeah I guess the players voting him ROTY was just silly and wrong… guys no good… Dumb comment!!!
0.9 war is not that good. Horrible defense is not that good. 309 obp is not that good. “DuMb CoMmEnT”.
“WAR hates him” LOL or maybe it objectively measures his performance?
Mountcastle needs to move to first. Playing the outfield absolutely destroys his value.
Lol sure.
Wanna bet? Not a single BBWAA writer gave Mountcastle a first place vote. Clearly WAR was not the issue.
Cue the eyeroll for Arozarena. I remember seeing him in the playoffs when he was with the Cardinals in 2019. Could they at the very minimum given it to a guy who actually made his debut in 2021 and not 2-3 years ago.
Geovany Soto moment
why does the last part matter at all?
Look at how many games he’s actually played
Reminds me quite a lot to when Hideki Matsui was not given the ROY because some argued he was a star in Japan but had no problem when Nomo, Ichiro and Sasaki won it.
Yes. If you’ve appeared in three seasons you should be ineligible. I think Japanese league players should also be ineligible.
I think you’ve essentially devalued the ROY award. Impressive
That would make Sataharu Oh the hone run king
bucsfan0004: Pretty much ever since the Rookie of the Year award became relevant they’ve had closely the same criteria. Hitter’s/position players 45 games played (or on the active roster) and/or less than 130 at bats. For pitchers it’s 50 innings pitched but I’m not sure about games played or active roster. Mike Trout got a late call up in 2011 and struggled. He then got won the AL ROY AWARD in 2012. There’s been numerous others that this has happened to as well.
Trout got a late call up in 2011 and won it in 2012. Arozarena got a late call up in 2019, played half the season in 2020, then a whole season in 2021. Do you see the difference? Plenty of players get a cup of coffee the year before, but not TWO years before. Think about that
FannGra0hs has no say i the matter.Learn thecrukescbeforecyou spout off. The requirements are no more than 130 At Bats or no more than 50 innings pitched, or no mre than 45 dayscon an MLB roster before September 1. Case closed.
Not shocked India won, although I wanted Trevor Rogers to win. However, how is Arozarena picked over Luis Garcia and even Adolis Garcia? Makes no sense to me.
He’s better.
Because Rice n Sand > any Garcia.
Adolis wasn’t that good, power there but nothing else
16 outfield assists and had more HR/RBI for a way worse team
Roy White had a terrible arm yet once led the American League with 17 outfield assists. Why? Because everyone and their grandmother ran on him.
And yet both Fangraphs and BBRef had them almost at the same value regarding WAR.
Yes, both ex-Cards! But they aren’t white. And this may not be popular with many. But having fought for civil rights for two generations, I think I can say such. Yes the Cards have compatible white guys. And perhaps the decision to move both Arozania and Garcia has merit, but to just “sell” Garcia should raise questions.
Arozorena was traded over a facebook post that embarrassed the manager.
I detest this kind of smear allegation offered up without any substantiation. Patrick Wisdom is a good comp to Adolis Garcia.
Cards give away a lot of talent with little in return, but there’s no pattern that can be shown or evidence of race dictating their decisions. I counted 14 players of color on the 40 man roster.
As stated by another poster, Arozarena offended the last manager by posting a profanity laced speech on social media. Garcia posted lousy OBPs in the minors and I believe passed through Rule 5 at least once.
St. Louis makes player evaluation mistakes and can certainly be dinged for that, But you’re out of line unless you have a lot more to back up what you’re hinting at..
Arozareana was just as good in the field and had a slightly better hit tool. Arozareana was the clear winner to me, I’m more confused on the NL voting. Had a feeling India would win, but thought it would be more close, all three are great players
I agree that Arozarena deserved to win. But how in the world do you figure that he was just as good as Garcia in the field lol?
Outs Above Average: +1 to +11 (Adolis)
Defensive Runs Saved: +3 to +16 (Adolis)
UZR/150: -3.2 to +11.8 (Adolis)
Def: 3.3 to 9.1 (Adolis)
Those were the correct calls.
No surprise here.
Arozarena???? That name sounds familiar!!!
Do you remember him John Mozeliak???
Liberatore should be the next Sandy Koufax for what all you gave up for him!!!
What?
Nah, he can’t hear you, he’s still to busy with the gargling and gurgling sounds of washing the soap out of Mike Shildts mouth, even though he fired him…. whoops
The Arozarena trade wasn’t the problem. The Dexter Fowler signing was the problem (which effectively blocked young outfielders). So Martinez and a young outfielder got shipped off for what has been and still is viewed as a very good return. The Cards wouldn’t have been much better with Arozarena on their team this year – they give fewer AB to Justin Williams but they still end up as the second wild card vs. the Dodgers.
As an alternative they could have traded O’Neill, Bader or Carlson – the only interchangeable name on that list is Carlson – and the jury is out on how good he will be. Jury is still out on how good Liberatore will be as well, but to lambast a GM for this trade – you have to be viewing it through a filter that paints the GM in the worst light.
The Fowler deal was the reaction when Heyward chose the Cubs instead of Cardinals. Mo felt he needed to make a move and signing Fowler kept the Cubs from getting him back. I’m usually a Mo backer but even I about choked when I read the news (how many years???). And Fowler’s first year wasn’t that bad and his last full year was pretty decent but he gets a ton of flack because of the dollars sunk on a team that is never a top spender. And yes, his signing and the trade for Ozuna really tamped down the opportunity for organization guys. That being said, I will be surprised if either Wisdom or A Garcia still are starting on an MLB team in 2023. Those strike out rates…
My issue is generally with the weak return the Cardinals typically get for viable major league players. While the jury is still out on Arozarena/Liberatore, the track record isn’t good. There’s a long list of players for whom Mozeliak rec’d limited or zero return….certainly in most cases, less than equal value….and that may be why some of us (over?)react to Arozarena’s success elsewhere.
Well stated!!!
I was not really satisfied with many of these award finalists this year (except AL MVP). Other than that, I’ve had some disagreements which is surprising because usually many of the picks are spot on.
As for these two, I haven’t followed close enough but did Arozarena have kind of a down year after his playoff showing in 2020?
I stand corrected… Arozarena was deserving but Cy Youngs and MOY I’m not sure I’ll agree with.
Absolute clown show for the AL Cy Young. None of the finalists would have been in the top 5 in the NL. Lance Lynn didn’t even have enough innings to be qualified according to Fangraphs
Only 41 pitchers tossed enough innings to qualify for their league’s ERA title. Also, how would those NL contenders have fared in a DH league?
Wow I wonder if we had websites like Fangraphs or Baseball Savant where we could compare pitchers while controlling for different park effects, weather, and defense. That would be crazy. Go to bed, old man
I am sure Fletcher is real proud to have you as a fan.
Commence namecalling. I miss grade school.
I mean Ray had a pretty good year while facing AL Easy offenses in half of his starts.
Dominant pitching does tend to end up in the AL though so shouldn’t be totally shocking.
Congratulations to both young men.
They deserved it.
Hope they both have great MLB careers.
Is this politesse??? On this site? Thank you, Samuel.
It’s a shame Arozarena didn’t have another 40 or 50 plate appearances to pad his stats in the 2020 shortened season. His being a two-time Rookie of the Year would have been way cool.
Would have had to be pretty impactful to have passed Roberts and Lewis in 40-50 PAs
So, where will Arozarena be playing in a few years, and what will the Rays get for him in trade?
See a couple guys Preller traded away
He would have had a chance, though. Huge lead in the slash categories.
Arozarena PA -76 HR -7 RBI – 11 .281/.382/.641 OPS+ 182
Lewis PA – 242 HR -11 RBI -28 ..262/.364/.437 OPS+ `124
Robert PA – 227 HR – 11 RBI – 31 .233/.302/.438 OPS+ 100
yeah, honestly agree. both fell off after hot starts – Lewis sorta won by default. part of why I wanted Javier to win.
So the only guy that didn’t give India the first place vote was from Cincy….interesting.
Two great exciting ballplayers that I have had great pleasure watching this past year and postseasons with Tampa. Can’t miss future MLB stars
Is that a real tattoo or just India ink?
Funny that the only writer to pick Rogers over India is from Cincinnati (Fangraphs’ Dan Szymborski).
You ever been in one of Dan’s chats on the FanGraphs site? That guy is an absolute clown.
He seems so mad all the time.
I’m from Cincy and never heard of the dude.
Well you aren’t missing anything.
He’s a clown. Unfollowed him on Twitter months ago.
Oh no, you unfollowed him. That’ll show him!
It’s too bad Patrick Wisdom wasn’t at least a finalist. He was great this first 3 or so weeks. Something like 8 HRs in 16 ABs
Jonathan India is a great example of why prospect rankings are strictly for nerds. Does anyone actually think GMs and scouts look at that garbage? Within four years Jonathan India was drafted and playing all star level ball for the Reds. He slid out of the top 100 yet Jasson Dominguez keeps climbing the list while doing almost nothing of note. Who’s evaluating these prospects in order to make these lists? ‘Well he isn’t hitting well but damn his legs are incredibly muscular and his swing looked good on those three strikeouts so let’s move him up five spots in the prospect rankings.’
Rogers wasn’t really tearing up the prospect boards either. He was decently ranked in the Marlins top 30 but was sliding with guys like Sixto Cabrera and Meyer making progress (well sixtos prospect pedigree and a nice mini stint in MLB)
So yeah sometimes prospects rankings are nothing or give up on a guy too fast. Rogers went from very tradeable to supposedly untouchable now.
Winning rookie of the year doesn’t mean much either. Long list of players who won and did nothing afterwards.
I’m guessing Rogers wins if he keeps the ERA under 3 over a mostly full season. Had to leave to help his family dead with the virus. Wasn’t quite the same after that but still had his moments. Very proud of him coming out of the system that didn’t think too high of him.
And i hate to say it but Marlins ROY winners tend to not have the best careers after winning the award so…. Probably a good thing.
Memo to league:
Don’t make trades with the Rays
Addendum to Memo: DO make trades with the Cardinals (2021 examples: Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, Patrick Wisdom),
What am I missing as to why Garrett Whitlock got zero votes? I thought he would get some votes.
Both deserved. Have to think to Franco was called up earlier he would have easily won.
Not sure how arozarena deserved it. Hard to consider him a rookie considering his mlb debut was 3 years ago in 2019 for 20 games, played last year then full year this year. Kind of a disservice to actual rookies
There are criteria listed above that categorizes who is a rookie. Arozarena fit. IDK why that’s a disservice
WAR or not, being a Reds fan and unbiased because I in general am just a baseball fan, all year long India was money. This one is well deserved in my humble opinion.
Not surprised Arozarena won, but not a single vote for Garrett Whitlock. Maybe he’ll be eligible to win in 2023?