Braves center fielder Michael Harris II has won the National League Rookie of the Year award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. He was followed by teammate Spencer Strider and Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan in second and third place, respectively.
This has long been viewed as a two-horse race, with the pair of Atlanta players separating themselves from the pack. Harris, a third-round pick in 2019, emerged as one of the game’s more interesting prospects with a breakout 2021 showing in High-A. He began this year in Double-A but quickly proved too advanced for the level, tearing apart opposing pitchers through 43 games. The Braves made the bold decision to skip him over Triple-A entirely, installing him as the everyday center fielder upon calling him to the big leagues in late May.
Harris stepped in excellently for the defending World Series winners. The left-handed hitter posted a .297/.339/.514 line through his first 441 big league plate appearances. He didn’t draw many walks, but Harris hit nearly .300 while connecting on 19 home runs and swiping 20 bases. He also played excellent center field defense, with Defensive Runs Saved pegging him as eight runs above average with the glove. Statcast estimated he was six runs above par, and the 21-year-old now looks like one of the most promising two-way position players in the game.
Strider, meanwhile, looks like one of the sport’s top young arms. A fourth-round draftee in 2020, he immediately outperformed that fairly modest selection. The right-hander earned a brief big league audition late last season and began this year in the MLB bullpen. By mid-May, he’d been moved to the rotation, and his excellent fastball-slider combination continued to befuddle big league hitters. The 24-year-old combined for 131 2/3 innings of 2.67 ERA ball between the bullpen and the starting staff, striking out an incredible 38.3% of opponents along the way.
A top-two finish in Rookie of the Year balloting takes on significance beyond its mere prestige value now, thanks to provisions in the new collective bargaining agreement. The CBA contained measures designed to counteract service time manipulation through the so-called “prospect promotion incentive.” Top-two Rookie of the Year finishers who were Top 100 prospects on at least two preseason lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline are automatically credited with a full service year.
Harris meets all three criteria and will thus earn a full service year, although he inked an eight-year contract extension midseason that negates any chance he’ll ever proceed through arbitration and pushed back his path to free agency. The full service year will have a small move in Harris’ eventual push for 10 years in the majors and its associated pension and possible no-trade benefits. Strider earned a full service year by playing 172-plus days on the MLB roster regardless, although he also later signed an extension.
The second element of the PPI won’t come into play in the National League. A player who meets the aforementioned prospect criteria, entered the year with less than 60 days of service and spent enough time on the MLB roster to earn a full service year independent of the awards finish would net their team a bonus draft choice with a top-two finish. Harris qualified for the prospect criteria but was not on the MLB roster long enough for a full service year without the award bonus. Strider did accrue the service time element but did not appear on a preseason Top 100 at any of MLB Pipeline, BA or ESPN. Unlike the Mariners, who received an extra selection based on Julio Rodríguez’s AL ROY win, the Braves will not accrue a bonus pick.
Harris picked up 22 of 30 first-place nods, with Strider collecting the other eight votes. Harris and Strider were 1-2 in some order on 29 of 30 ballots, with Reds closer Alexis Díaz earning the other second-place vote. Donovan earned a third-place finish with a .281/.394/.379 showing over 468 plate appearances in a utility capacity for St. Louis; he grabbed 22 third-place votes. Arizona outfielder Jake McCarthy, Cincinnati starter Nick Lodolo and Pittsburgh shortstop Oneil Cruz joined Díaz in picking up stray support.
Full vote breakdown available here.
Everyone knew it would be either Harris or Strider. Both had superb rookie campaigns.
So this is the team who everyone said had no more farm left after bringing everyone like Albies, Acuna, and Riley up? And they had a great looking player like Grissom hit over .290 this season on top of having both of the best 2 rookies in the league in Strider and Harris? How can you have a “depleted farm system” but still bring up both of the best 2 rookies in the league right after everyone says that?
I could understand if it was a fluke for 1 player to happen to win ROY even though he probably won’t be great like Hideo Nomo or someone and then the rest of the teams rookies are bad. 2 players finishing as the top rookies in the league after everyone said “the Braves farm system is depleted” doesn’t make much sense unless the people who said that were just wrong. You can’t have a depleted farm system and then immediately call up both of the best 2 rookies in the league from that depleted farm system.
Who said that?
Probably the bumgarnerfornlcs dbag
I have no idea…?
No one said their farm was depleted prior to them coming up. With them both here they didn’t have much capital left to trade prospects at the deadline for anything, that part is true.
Depleted is still probably the wrong word, they’re just all technically arrived more or less lol.
The “depleted” statement was made by many sports pundits including even some writers from MLBTR. They weren’t completely derogatory comments or anything. Plenty of pundits made statements like “the Braves used to have a great farm but now it’s barren. It works for them because their team is young but now that Albies, Acuna, Riley, Fried and Wright are all called up and Pache and Langoliers are all traded there is really nothing left.”
You have to keep in mind that these comments were made by the same pundits who bashed the Braves for spending a draft pick on Strider “for one covid shortened season.” The main reason is a lot of them just didn’t believe in Harris (not a ton of power) or Strider (always had great stuff but bad overall numbers until his last college season). Nevertheless you can’t have a tapped out farm system and then pull both of the best 2 rookies in the league right out of it. Many people were saying that before Strider or Harris were ever called up so it’s not like they just started saying it now that they are in the majors.
It happens. It’s hard to properly evaluate prospects. I don’t blame anyone for thinking that after all the callups the Braves made. I just thought it was notable and kind of funny that a lot of writers having been saying that for the past 2 or 3 years and then both of the best 2 rookies come out of that system they said was tapped out. I don’t think any system is tapped out if they are a year away from bringing up both of the best two rookies in the league. That’s a pretty valuable farm system if you ask me. I can’t remember the last time any team had both of the best 2 rookies in the league and I would never guess they would both come from a team who was accused of having a tapped out farm system. I’m sure people will keep saying it now and use Strider and Harris being called up as an excuse. Then, if someone like Mueller wins a Cy Young next year that will somehow be confirmation they were right because then Mueller would no longer be in the farm.
At some point if a team keeps bringing up good players people have to just admit that they were wrong and tapped out farm systems just don’t come up with rookies this good. That’s kind of the opposite definition of tapped out or depleted or whatever terminology any given writer wants to use. Bringing up multiple players at one time who are this good is very hard to do and organizations with farm systems that are actually tapped out just aren’t capable of doing it.
@Steve Yes I do remember seeing some statements like that. Mostly after the Olson trade on how it was a “Haul” and their minor leagues were depleted after that or something. The Braves system is often overlooked because of those guys that have stalled at AAA. A lot of their top talent isn’t talked about or goes unseen because of it. Hopefully next year Malloy does the same thing. He’s their 11th ranked prospect.
baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=mal…
the braves farm system isn’t as strong, it won’t be as strong as it once was but it still has some life
Thanks for the dissertation Steve…see you at graduation. Hope you’re recovered from having your feelings hurt by then.
Who cares what they said, he said, she said? Fact is the Braves are proving to be one of the smartest organizations in sports and I admire that without negative emotion.
They had a top 3 system a few years ago. Now they are a bottom 5 farm system. Yes their farm system is depleted compared to what it once was.
They both deserved it
Donovan did as well, the three best rookies of the nl? Haris, Strider, and Donovan
Donovan is gonna be an on base machine for years to come. Such a good batting eye
Donovan had good defense and solid hitting.
Just wish he had any pop at all. The years his BABIP is down will look like 2015 Jon Jay which is unplayable.
This is actually quite brilliant on AA’s part. Signed both Harris and Strider to extensions and didn’t even give up a extra year control on either of them do to Manfraud’s new rules. Braves will be good for years with the extensions and talent the team has. I’m hopeful of hearing a Dansby resigning soon.
Good for him but should’ve been strider IMO
I disagree, Strider pitched once every 5 days. True, he was dominating, but Michael played every day and to my opinion he was the best cf in the game, he held his own offensively. I think this was the right choice.
@olereb
a position player doesn’t have the same effect on a game as a starting pitcher. I’m not arguing for Strider over Harris but I don’t agree with choosing a guy just because he plays everyday.
So by this definition no starting pitcher should win ROY because he only pitches every 5 games?
Lmao…. That’s some serious clown logic.
Strider made history by being the fastest pitcher to 200 strikeouts in a season in Major League history in 130 innings breaking Randy Johnson’s record of 130.2 innings. But yeah, totally undeserving of ROY because it was only once every 5 days. Makes total sense
You Strider people need to have your own award. You need other people to tell you if a movie is great or not as well? I got my own hall of fames. I been declaring my own national champion since I can remember. You don’t actually agree with the number of championships Alabama claims do you?
I think Harris should have won, but that’s a flawed argument. Strider faced 528 batters. Harris had 441 PA + 257 chances in the field, so a total of 698 chances to impact the game. Strider’s impact every 5 days amounts to the same as a position player over the course of a season.
I love them both but I feel missing the last 3 weeks of season to injury cost strider. But both def deserved it
I picked strider too, but flip a coin, I’m happy for either guy. They were both awesome to watch. I always felt like tie goes to the everyday player for these types of awards.
I feel strider prob would have won if not for missing the last 3-4 weeks of season to injury. However, Harris deserved it also and was an everyday player once he was called up
It should have been Strider IMO, but Harris had a hell of a year too and was certainly worthy in his own right.
Agree with this. No disrespect to Harris but Strider was out there breaking records making history with his performance.
Exactly. Harris had a very good rookie year, but Strider had a historically good rookie year.
Two great candidates. Hard to argue either way.
When Harris arrived the Braves took off. In my opinion very hard to vote against an everyday player for a pitcher who only plays every 5 days. Harriers worth a lot in those 4 games in between when Strider started
This isn’t MVP, this is Rookie of the Year. Ain’t nothing wrong about including intangibles in your analysis, but if someone’s just outright better than the other statistically (not saying this was such a case), then I think they should just get it.
I wanna know who the voter that gave the second place vote to Alexis Diaz was
Had to be a reds beat writer
It was an LA writer actually. Diaz had a nice year, but also a 3.31 FIP and 4.7 BB/9.
Not that surprised by this. I had an inkling that Harris would win it over Strider (more or less because of WAR) but whoever won it deserved it.
Strider had a higher WAR, at least by fangraphs calculations, 4.9 to 4.8
Well deserved. Hope he stays the course
Strider robbed
Not really. Harris hit almost .300 and missed having a 20/20 season by 1 Home Run.
Both were deserving and it would have been cool if they could have split the votes enough to be co-ROY but since that has never happened i guess it wasn’t going to start now.
Perhaps like how the NFL has offensive and defensive Rookies of the Year maybe MLB should have seperate awards for position players and pitchers
Strider had the more impressive season I think (though Harris was still great), and he’ll probably have the more impressive career going by Harris’s underlying metrics. Low walk rate, high strike out rate, unsustainable BABIP, etc. Felt like the big extension they gave him was a bit of a mistake too unless they see something different with him that makes them think this production is sustainable.
The big extension is 12 mil a year mad lol. They have him until 29 and have two reasonable options for 35 mil total.
12 MM a year in actual dollars but you had him for the league minimum for 2 more years + a cheap first arb salary.
I doubt the Braves will regret his extension because the floor of Harris is pretty high with just the defense and the base running even if the bat takes a step back. Might’ve been a little early but you can gamble on maybe the plate discipline ticking up as he ages. He’s extremely young.
I’m a Braves fan so I love them both. I think Strider will need a legit 3rd pitch to end up having a better career than Harris but it’s splitting hairs. If healthy I’d predict they’ll both be great. I also think it’s laughable to even attempt forecast a career based on the “underlying metrics” of a 21 y/o kid with about 450 AB’s above AA. Harris is still developing and is far from a finished product. My money would be on him adjusting, developing and being much better next year and going forward than he was this year.
Toss-up. I think Strider will be better long term
I disagree, to win you have to be strong up the middle and cf will be strong for the Braves for years to come.
Harris plays every day and that’s the separator to me. But Strider had a helluva year.
They are both Braves! I’m good!
“Strider did accrue the service time element but did not appear on a preseason Top 100 at any of MLB Pipeline, BA or ESPN. ”
no surprise there.
They should have a ROY for pitchers and hitters, Unless it is not close, pitchers always get the shaft including with MVP votes.
I don’t know if I agree that they’re “getting the shaft”; but I could support a separate award for each. I do kind of like that idea TradeAcuna.
No draft compensation is a joke.
Braves should get 2 picks
Why? They weren’t eligible by the agreement the players and teams agreed to.
I wish they both could have been co-rookie of the year
I picked Harris as the MVP over Strider, but Strider is my pick (if he can go years without major injury) to have the more impressive career.
Sorry, Goldie! Meant rookie of the year not MVP.
Writers costing the Braves a draft pick for Strider is wild. And Harris being excluded should force mlb/mlbpa to have a closer look at the PPI system in the next CBA.
How did the writers cost the Braves a draft pick? They voted him second to qualify him. Preseason rankings of prospects are not done by writers. The Braves cost themselves a draft pick by not calling up Harris in time.
For the paid media at ESPN & BA, which non writers compiled & published the preseason lists you’re speaking of? I’m unaware that “preseason rankings of prospects” on lists published by the writers at BA & ESPN were compiled exclusively for free by professional scouts, and published for free by unpaid writers.
I’m aware of the rules regarding Harris.
The general vibe was that Strider would win it, even though history says Harris would win it. History was correct.
Nice to see Dback Jake McCarthy get some love.
Funny bc I had to check this site to see who won NL. Every media outlet out there is on the Julio train
Positing this on every thread that pops up!!!! This is the problem with baseball. The writers determine everything! ESPN has Alcantara winning cy young in a landslide 13-0. Ok. Here are some FACTS!!!! 17 earned runs to Philly in 6 games…..7 earned runs in 2 games against the dodgers…..10 earned runs against the Mets in 3 games. 5 earned runs against Seattle in 1 game. That’s the cy young? really? He beat non playoff teams up! That’s the cy young! Are you kidding me?????
You conveniently left out the Braves, Cardinals, and Padres. I’m calculating about 2.50 ERA against all playoff teams.
I would’ve given it to Strider but both had amazing years.
I find it crazy how some teams are so good at drafting and or training player to always seem to have a strong home grown base of players to build around while others could not develop one if their life depended on it. Yes I’m looking at you Nats! You need to learn from Braves.
It’s funny you say that b/c a short time ago there were some public comments from players (i.e. Lucas Sims) insinuating Braves lack of development. It’s interesting to watch some homegrown players like Evan Phillips go on from ATL to become a star in LAD (dang you) — but they seem to do that to everyone.
It took some time to regrow the development team after there was a purge from Coppygate with Gordon Blakeley moving on, but once AA got his people in place, it’s been nice to see some of the rewards, even in spite of the lack of picks due to the penalties under Coppygate.
This past year was the first year ATL had no penalties (i.e. loss of draft picks, loss of international spending, etc.) — so they’ve been growing the farm despite all of that.
The whole system with compensation for RoY is so arbitrary. Just giving a guy an extra year of service time? Draft pick compensation because a guy was a top 100 prospect? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Twins fans have seen this coming for years. We’ve long known about Harris’ outstanding range and hands in center field, but the bat was a surprise of course.
I’ve just learned that this is a different Michael Harris. Oops.
(The Michael Harris I’m thinking of is fictional: there is a long-running radio commercial for Target that plays during Twins games, voiced by Twins TV play-by-play man Dick Bremer. In the commercial, mom Judy is in Target, looking through Twins merchandise, and suddenly, and for no apparent reason, a jersey goes flying off the hanger, “straight over the head of her son Michael!” Michael goes back, back, back, dodging hats and t-shirts, and makes the outstanding catch. “This is just what the Harris family needed!” is the final line.
This commercial has been running for years. My wife rolls her eyes every time she hears it, since she has heard it a thousand times, and the image of a jersey spontaneously flying off its hanger and however many feet is silly. But I always cheer on Michael Harris, who ALWAYS tracks it down and makes the catch. He NEVER drops it. Through all the years this commercial has been airing, he hasn’t lost a step!)
Donovan getting the consensus #3 pick is still quite an honor. He’s a great player, and will be for a long time.
Great may be a bit of an overstatement. Solid player, but no power or speed.
I’m one of those old-school fans who still values plate discipline and defense. Donovan has both.
My 2022 Rookie All Star Team. SEA, CIN and MIN have 3 players; BAL, KCR, ATL and TEX have 2 players::
C BAL Adley Rutschman #
1B MIN Jose Miranda
2B STL Brendan Donovan *
3B KCR Bobby Witt *
SS HOU Jeremy Pena
LF CLE Steven Kwan *
CF ATL Michael Harris *
RF SEA Julio Rodriguez
DH KCR MJ Melendez *
SP ATL Spencer Strider
SP MIN Joe Ryan
SP SEA George Kirby
SP CIN Hunter Greene
SP CIN Nick Lodolo *
RP CIN Alexis Diaz
RP MIN Jhoan Duran
RP TEX Brock Burke *
RP BAL Felix Bautista
RP SEA Penn Murfee
What I would like to know and what I find very wrong is what writer left Strider off the vote altogether. With such a clear gap from the top two down, what possible justification could have been used to not even give Strider a third place vote.
I made Strider my MLB ROY for 2022.
It’s not Sportwriters’ most blatant omission. Don Sutton is my MLB ROY for 1966. He didn’t receive a single vote from Sportswriters that year.