Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll has won the National League Rookie of the Year award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. Mets right-hander Kodai Senga came in second while Dodgers outfielder James Outman placed third.
Carroll was selected to Arizona’s roster in late August of last year, allowing him to get a taste of the majors but without exhausting his rookie status. He fared extremely well in that audition, hitting .260/.330/.500 in his first 115 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 131, indicating he was 31% better than the league average hitter in that time. The D’Backs felt confident enough in Carroll based on that showing, and his work as a minor leaguer, to give him an eight-year extension with a guarantee of $111MM.
They were hoping he would be an integral part of the club and help them make the postseason for the first time since 2017. He went on to have an incredible showing in his first full season in the majors, hitting 25 home runs and stealing 54 bases. His .285/.362/.506 line led to a 131 wRC+ and he also got strong grades for his outfield defense. He produced 6.0 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs while Baseball Reference had him at 5.4. The club did indeed break their postseason drought, snagging a Wild Card spot and eventually going all the way to the World Series.
While the award is surely thrilling for Carroll and the Snakes on its own, there are other implications of Carroll taking the trophy. The new collective bargaining agreement contains measures designed to combat service time manipulation through the prospect promotion incentive, or PPI. 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. That won’t apply to Carroll, who was up all year and earned a full service year regardless, though he was the #2 prospect on all three of those lists. Gunnar Henderson, who got the AL trophy today, was #1.
But players with PPI status can also earn extra draft picks for their clubs if they have less than 60 days of service time to start the season and earn a full service year the traditional way, as Carroll did, while also appearing on those preseason prospect lists. Players in that camp who finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting or top three in Cy Young or Most Valuable Player voting during their pre-arbitration seasons earn a bonus pick after the first round for their club. That means the Diamondbacks, who are already loaded with young talent, will get a valuable extra pick in next year’s draft.
Senga also had a strong season, his first after coming over from Japan. He made 29 starts for the Mets with a 2.98 earned run average, 29.1% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 44.7% ground ball rate. Players considered by MLB to be foreign professionals, as Senga is, aren’t eligible to earn PPI picks for their clubs. Outman also had a solid campaign, hitting 23 home runs and stealing 16 bases. He struck out in 31.9% of his plate appearances but offset that somewhat by walking at a 12% clip. His .248/.353/.437 batting line led to a wRC+ of 118 and he also graded out well in the field. He wasn’t considered a top 100 prospect coming into the year and wouldn’t have qualified for a PPI pick even if he surpassed Senga for second place.
The voting was unanimous, per the vote tally at BBWAA, with Carroll getting all 30 first-place votes. Senga got 22 second-place votes and Outman got five. Other players getting votes were Nolan Jones of the Rockies, Eury Pérez of the Marlins, Patrick Bailey of the Giants and three Reds: Matt McLain, Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
No surprise here. Man deserved it. Absolute beast.
NATIONAL LEAGUE RESULTS
Corbin Carroll, AZ: 30 first-place votes, unanimous — 150 points
Kodai Senga, NYM: 22 (2nd-place votes), 5 (3rd) — 71 points
James Outman, LAD: 5 (2nd), 5 (3rd) — 20 points
Nolan Jones, COL: 2 (2nd), 11 (3rd) — 17 points
Matt McLain, CIN: 1 (2nd), 2 (3rd) — 5 points
Spencer Steer, CIN: 4 (3rd) — 4 points
Eury Pérez, MIA: 1 (3rd) — 1 point
Elly De La Cruz, CIN: 1 (3rd) — 1 point
Patrick Bailey, SF: 1 (3rd) — 1 point
This information is available on mlb.com.
Great. I’m going right over just to see the same data twice!
Yeah heaven forbid someone take the time to post relevant information… Thanks Lou for posting that info!
Huh? Nolan Jones had over 45 service days last season. like the kid deserves some cred, but still.
MLB decided some time in May or June that he still maintained his rookie eligibility. It used to be less than 150 PAs or 50 innings pitched for rookie status, but I don’t know the exact rules now. All I know is that the Rockies announce team made the announcement during a game and Jones won the NL Rookie of the Month in September.
Jones spent exactly 45 days on Cleveland’s roster last year, which still made him eligible for rookie status. The rule is you can’t exceed it.
Can someone point out where we can find a player’s Service Time?
That service time rule disqualified C ARI Gabriel Moreno from being a rookie.
COL has a good crop of rookies with SS Ezequiel Tovar, CF Brenton Doyle and Nolan Jones,
Since we’re speaking of Nolan Jones, who will win the 15 Nov 2022 trade? COL acquired OF Nolan Jones from CLE for IF Juan Brito? CLE is fast tracking Brito.
Service time is sometimes(or often?) included on the baseball reference dot com app.
Tap on the player link, then tap on the red “more bio/uniform/stats” to find that info.
Ella de La Cruz’s service time is not shown, but Steer’s and Jones’ are shown there.
Outman is out there yelling at hitters “Hey you’re outman” nobody understands what he’s so upset about? Pitcher hollered back “it’s a brand new count Outman, pfft, out there rookie” outman yells back “no you’re Outman”
Kinda like Homer Bailey. Tough name for a pitcher!
There used to be a left-handed pitcher named Josh Outman. Came up with the A’s, career ERA of 4.43 and 2.7 bWAR.
Josh outman was originally with phillies I believe..left hand SP.
Can’t argue with that. Same order I would have voted them in.
I’d still take Nolan Jones over him all day long.
Nolan might win Rockie of the Year, and he’s good… but Corbin deserved this. Peep the numbers.
I don’t need the numbers. I watched them both play quite a bit this year. Carroll is good, but I would still rather have Jones both in 2023 and going forward.
That’s a hot take that no one else will agree with.
Today I was this old when I found out hiflew actually does run the Rockies…
Doesn’t make me wrong. Popular doesn’t mean infallible. Just one more thing I have in common with Galileo I guess.
Wouldn’t want the headache and ulcers, even if it were possible.
If Jones played in the same amount of games as Carrol there would have been a legitimate discussion about who the ROY should have been. Jones definitely should have been in the top three but big market bias and the hype train allowed Senga and Outtman to jump over him.
(Inserts face palm here)
Awesome, now people near you don’t have to see your face. You deserve props for that.
Pretty obvious for Carroll. The other two had solid starts to their careers.
The Angels left Carroll and George Kirby on the board when the selected Wil Wilson in the first round. Both were universally rated higher by every publication. Can’t imagine why we suck….
What was the rational reported? I’m not a fan of second guessing amateur picks a few years on since young players are so fluid in their development, but this one seemed like a miss then and certainly now.
I’m pretty sure Wilson signed for less than slot which allowed them to draft Kyren Paris in the second round and sign him above slot.
This was back in the “we’ll draft raw athletes and hope to turn them into baseball players despite paying the lowest coaches salaries in the minors” phase of the front office.
Orioles took Rutschmann in the 1st Round and Henderson in the 2nd Round of the 2019 draft.
Absolutely nailed it.
Franchise altering draft right there.
Ouch…
No surprise
Remember when Elly de la Cruz won this award 2 weeks into his MLB career? Oh wait…
Congrats to Carroll. Well deserved.
No, I don’t. I remember when he lit the baseball world on fire for close to a month, but it was Carroll’s award all year long. Cruz will adjust or he won’t. But no one thought he was overtaking Carroll.
A banner year for the Diamondbacks.
I was partial to Senga, but Carroll did deserved it.
I’m surprised Jones didn’t finish in the top 3 instead of Outman. I wonder if some voters gave him a “Coors” penalty.
Does anyone have the list of Coors field Cy Young winners?
Larry Walker, ’97.
Didn’t realize Larry pitched…
Sorry, I’ve been ill.
Larry Walker, a legimate 6 Tool threat. Hope you’re feeling better, EBJ!
The only past or present or dare I say future Cy Young winner that ever played for the Rockies was Bret Saberhagen,
Possibly, but I think his late start to the season hurt more than anything. Carroll already had the award won in the minds of many people by the time Jones was called up.
He also had a very long look in 2022. That might have hurt him with voters.
Dbacks giving Carroll an 8 year guaranteed major leauge deal and getting a free comp pick makes no sense. What service time was there to manipulate
It makes perfect sense. A player is considered a rookie until they pass either 130 ABs or 45 days on the Active Roster; Carroll’s ’22 season saw him only getting into 32 games with 104 ABs.
He was only called up that “early” due to the existence of the new PPI rules, and the DBacks took great care to ensure his eligibility stayed intact for the ’23 season.
Then the DBacks negotiated an extension and gave Carroll the nod to start the season under the pretenses that he had a good shot to win Rookie of the Year, so he would’ve gained a full season of service time anyways.
Fortunately, Carroll took the offer, for reasons I can only assume relate to wanting to guarantee his earning power despite the looming threat of reinjuring his shoulder. And fortunately Carroll showed himself to be a force.
The fact that he no longer had to deal with arbitration is irrelevant, because he was a rookie eligible, former top 100 prospect. DBacks handled that masterfully, but that does point to an unfortunate reality…
Service time manipulation was only affected in the sense that the deadlines were adjusted. Teams will always find a way to maximize returns.
Congratulations to Corbin. He’s probably the most obvious choice since Pujols.
Carrol is a beast. This is well deserved.
Francisco Álvarez deserved to be on the ballot.
Alvarez had a 95 OPS+ despite hitting 25 home runs and was below-average across the board with 1.0 bWAR in 123 games. This was one of the strongest rookie years I can recall in the National League and voters only get to put 3 players on their ballet. Heck, Matt McLain and Nolan Jones, who had 3.7 and 4.3 bWAR weren’t even finalists where in most years they’d be a serious candidate to win the award outright.
They got first place and second place correct. Easy calls.
I personally rank both Nolan Jones and Spencer Steer ahead of Outman. Outman plays a tough defensive position but Steer was versatile. Both Jones and Steer are superior at the plate to Outman.
Never seen a rookie come to the majors and become a real team leader, he is not a rah,rah player he is just a 22year old old baseball soul, leads by his actions on the field. I like having the extra pick after the first round gives them the 29th and 31st pick.. Well deserved award..
30 for 30. Hard to argue anyone else.
Absolutely the right choice.
Why do you all keep calling people beasts? It’s not really very flattering.
I prefer “straight fire” – like you can grill a steak or make s’mores on his head.
Ezequiel Tovar has 37 doubles and plays Gold Glove quality shortstop and doesn’t even get a single vote. Shame. He was much more productive than either of the Reds more celebrated SSs.
While I do really like Tovar’s glove (and wonder why the massive disconnect is there between UZR and DRS/OAA/RAA regarding his range), RotY voters tend to place a premium on offense; rightfully so, considering batting is the quickest way to impact the game state.
Tovar’s offensive numbers aside from those 37 2Bs aren’t exactly flattering, especially his plate discipline (holy 45.4% SwStr%, Batman!); he had quite a ways to go before he was going to be in the award discussions, but fortunately he’s still incredibly young.
Quick correction: 45.4% O-swing%, not SwStr%. So it wasn’t THAT bad; that’s what I get for rushing and typing lol
Now, 17.1% SwStr% was the actual number, and that’s not exactly good…
I think it speaks more to the fact that 2023 had a strong rookie class than anything Tovar did. Tovar has already established himself as one of the best defenders at shortstop, a position the Rockies have done a good job of finding players at since Tulo, and has extra base hit pop. The glove carries him to an above-average regular profile, but he’ll need to make fewer outs in order to be a true impact player. Fortunately he’s only 22 and there’s plenty of room for growth.
I think right now, McLain is the superior option at SS although Tovar can easily close that gap if he can reach base even just at a league-average rate (~.320). He doesn’t need to outproduce him with the bat, just close enough that the massive difference in defense pushes him over. In my opinion Tovar is capable of winning multiple Gold Gloves as a Rockie.
Am I correct in thinking the ball club gets an extra pick in the amateur draft.
Correctamundo sir! This ticket is good for one free extra pick after the 1st Rd. Pains me (a lil) to say, but great work Snakes. Bravo
I’m sorry I was upset, but did you see Corbin’s face when they did that to him? He was gracious, but you could tell he was hurt. And who wouldn’t be? He was the history breaking, unanimous 2023 NL ROY. He watched all the positive raves about every other candidate, but then for him, they show a rookie mistake that makes the AL ROY look great by comparison! Just because Baltimore is on the East Coast and Arizona is out in the hinterlands of the Southwest, that East coast bias…
Carroll will be a great player for years to come. DBacks did well in signing him to a very reasonable 8 year contract, although I’m sure the amount will be increased in upcoming seasons.