National League Rookie of the Year Award finalists have been announced. The voting will come down to Brewers right-handed reliever Devin Williams, Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm and Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth. Here’s a look at what they did this year…
- Williams was likely the most dominant reliever in baseball in 2020. The 26-year-old wasn’t the hardest-throwing pitcher in the sport – though he did average an impressive 96.5 mph mean on his fastball – but how do you beat a .33 ERA/.86 FIP over 27 innings? By the way, Williams posted 17.87 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9.
- Bohm didn’t join the Phillies until the middle of August, but he quickly solidified his spot in their lineup. The 24-year-old slashed an outstanding .338/.440/.481 (138 wRC+) with four home runs in 181 plate appearances.
- Cronenworth, whom San Diego acquired from Tampa Bay last winter, proved to be a gem for the Padres in 2020. He played all four infield positions and batted .285/.354/.477 (125 wRC+) with four HRs over 192 PA during his first MLB season.
Who’s the NL Rookie of the Year? (Poll link for app users)
lowtalker1
Anything other than Jake cronenworth and it’s fixed just the the World series
fred-3
Padres won the World Series 5 times in one season! Beat the dodgers four times and won a wild card series, wow
DarkSide830
the world series was fixed according to what sources?
Tim_Buck-Two
According to that one guy who posted a article about it on Aug 29th. He hid the fact by calling it number 5 and talking about Albert Pujols and the giants and 2011, but he was right about red meeting blue and making a purple stain on the sky, Randy Arozarena, an attempted steal of home in game 5, some stolen treasure, and the number of the guy who won the MVP. Not bad for a guy nobody ever heard of
VegasSDfan
Cronenworth had a tremendous season, he also played the infield really well.
GoLandCrabs
Cronenworth is a utility player who had a hot streak and got figured out as the season went on. Padre fans are in for more shock when they find out he is not some young future star.
Stevil
Well, he didn’t exactly get ‘figured out’ in the postseason facing quality teams. He hit .389/.542/.667 with a 226 wRC+. That ‘hot streak’ you’re talking about ran from July through August and again in October.
When you look at splits you have to look at everything and you can’t take small samples too seriously. He didn’t have a great September, but he had a .224 BABIP which helps explain why few balls were resulting in hits. His BB/K was the same and he wasn’t chasing, so suggesting he was lost at the plate wouldn’t hold any weight, either.
But what really gets me is that you make it sound like his positional flexibility is a negative or makes him less of a player. It’s the opposite. It’s an asset, just like that flexibility was an asset for LAD with Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez; Joey Wendel, Mike Brosseau, and Brandon Lowe for Tampa. The two teams we saw in the World Series leaned heavily on positional flexibility.
Cronenworth is the regular second baseman for SD, though. He played 38 games at 2B, 11 at SS, 10 at 1B, and 1 at 3B. They moved him around when other players needed rest (or had minor injuries) because they had Profar to cover 2B. Profar, too, offers some positional flexibility.
Whether you care to admit it or not, he gave Padre fans a star season and there’s nothing in his profile–MLB and MiLB–that suggests this kind of production isn’t sustainable.
fox471 Dave
WS was fixed? You have got to be a Padres fan.
brown trout fisherman
How? Has the worst stats and tailed off at the end .. williams or Bohm
FredMcGriff for the HOF
Where’s Ian Anderson in the poll?
gwaid44
What category is Cronenworth better than Bohm? I’ll give you a quick answer- none. Same amount of HR’s 4 (Bohm had less ABs). AVG. Bohm 338/.440/.481 Cronenworth .285/.354/.477. And Bohm was CLUTCH with RISP, 3rd in MLB I believe. Devin Williams was ridiculous, best RP #s I remember seeing (although in 28 IP). I’d vote for Bohm, can understand if Williams wins but I think Jake is a distant 3rd not to take anything away from him
Stevil
How about a 44 game sample, which was the sample Alec had?
Jake slashed .319/.378/.546 with a 148wRC+
Or maybe 181 PA sample? .
Jake: 304/.376/.509; 139 wRC+
Alec’s complete season with 180 PA’s: .338/.400/.481; 138 wRC+.
The point isn’t to suggest Jake is the better player, the point is that they were equally valuable through similar samples. Jake had a rough September, but rebounded and produced for SD in the postseason. That should be considered as well.
Both players were great for their respective teams. Award or no award, both teams have reason to feel good.
Dorothy_Mantooth
Croenworth was #3 out of these 3 guys. He had a great year but Williams and Bohm were clearly better. No fix at all, just reality. With that said, SD has to be thrilled with that trade. It’s rare when a team wins a trade with Tampa and so far, it sure looks like SD won this trade easily.
astick
Antone is more deserving.
sam00991
Anything other than Bohm really makes no sense. Without Cronenworth, the Padres were a playoff team anyways. I must admit, Williams is closer because he truly came out of nowhere with dominance, but bullpen arms don’t play enough in my opinion in order to be chosen for this type of award. The Phillies were one game away with Bohm, and they may have been last without him since he carried when others were injured, he even led the entire league in hits in September I think!
Padres458
Lol. Theres one choice, cronenworth.
brown trout fisherman
Why crony I just don’t get it?
jdgoat
The quality of team they’re on shouldn’t have anything to do with voting. The best rookie should win.
sam00991
ok, that makes sense. Well if thats the case, Bohm was the best rookie to me if it is really that simple.
PutPeteRoseInTheHall
williams was a rookie. how is it not supposed to be out of nowhere?
sam00991
Well, because if you’re 26 and still a rookie that meant something went wrong in the minors before hand. Most rookies are early 20s
UnknownPoster
Or you were a college guy who went 1 level at a time
Or had an injury. Doesn’t mean they are nobodies
anthonyd4412
Who cares? The guy was awesome
gwaid44
Williams wasn’t a highly touted prospect he was a middle reliever (Hader is the closer) thats why some would say came out of nowhere.
stymeedone
@sam
The only qualification is being a rookie. Your qualifier would mean only position players could win the award! To ignore one of the most dominate stat lines in history “because bullpen arms don’t play enough” is arbitrary. Try to find another pitcher, not even limiting to a rookie, who produced that level of production in 25 innings or more. This is not that Milwaukee treated him like a rule 5 to get him thru this season. He was their closer! His competition had nice seasons. Williams had a truly outstanding season.
DarkSide830
im biased, but I voted Bohm. his hitting really had an impact on this team. (also id be miffed if Williams wins but Giles couldn’t even make the top 3 in 2014)
13Morgs13
He most likely will not win but Bohm will have the best career of the 3. Bohm is a monster with the bat.
PutPeteRoseInTheHall
what about the reliever who struck out almost 2 per inning
DarkSide830
relievers are volatile and Williams doesn’t have the track record or pedigree that Bohm has. That said, I still expect Williams to be good, just not as much so as Bohm.
MetsFan22
Williams will have a better prime for their position. But position players are obviously more valuable. But I just don’t see the Padres guy or Bohm being anything other than average to above avg players. Imo. Williams could be a top 5 reliever with his changeup.
gwaid44
If you do not see Bohm as more than average, I’d love to know what you base that on? He has hit for high avg/obp/slg at every level he ever played at. Bryce Harper said he will be a future multitime MVP winner.Check the stats and video. Bohm is special.
PiratesFan1981
Why doesn’t Pittsburgh Pirates 3B Hayes qualify for ROY? He has a legit argument to win it
mlb1225
Yea he led all rookies in batting average, OBP, slugging, wRC+, wOBA and was tied with Kyle Lewis in rookie fWAR. Sadly, I had a feeling he wouldn’t be a finalist because he had less than 100 plate appearances and still even has prospect status.
DarkSide830
i think they made a rule facilitating for guys under the cut off, but even so his sample size was probably just a bit too small. that said, id expect him to be the 4th place finisher.
PiratesFan1981
Sadly he should qualify for ROY next year if he can’t get acknowledged this year. If he can keep his adjustments to major league pitch all year, he should be a lock for ROY. His defense is not something to worry about. It’s his offense that may drag him down
UnknownPoster
If he’s still rookie eligible, it means exactly that. He will be Roy eligible next year
I think cutoff is 130 AB but going off memory
jdgoat
That’s a hard choice. What a strong class the NL had when guys like Gonsolin and Hayes aren’t even finalists.
mlb1225
If Gonsolin was a choice, he’d be my winner. You can’t beat a sub-3 ERA, FIP, a WHIP below .9, and 6.57 k/bb ratio.
24TheKid
Well apparently you can
PutPeteRoseInTheHall
williams did
Dorothy_Mantooth
Ian Anderson was much better than Gonsolin. Plus didn’t Gonsolin burn his rookie status last year with LA? Sure felt like he pitched enough in 2019 to exhaust his rookie status, but maybe I’m wrong.
Orel Saxhiser
Overall, I would take Sixto Sanchez, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, and Ian Anderson over all three candidates. Especially when building a team.
The choice: Cronenworth is a better defender than Bohm. But with their offensive numbers being so similar, I’ll go with Williams for being the only one of the three who was in some way dominant. In a short season, Williams’ numbers may have been a mirage, but that’s all we have to go on. This despite the fact that I tend to be anti-reliever when it comes to awards.
gwaid44
How are Bohm and Jakes #s so close? Bohm hit .50 pts higher in avg. and .92 higher in obp
Rangers29
Devin Williams, and by a good margin. When you can come up, and all the sudden be the BEST player at your position that same season… you are the ROY. Cronenworth may have been more valuable to the Padres, but this isn’t an award based on value, it’s an award based on being the best. Williams is that, and Cronenworth isn’t. Plain and simple.
BTW, just seeing a .33 era and a 17.9 K/9 is just absurd. Absolutely absurd.
MetsFan22
I agree
VonPurpleHayes
By the numbers 2020 Bohm > 2020 Cronenworth. I’m not sure if the voters will see it that way as well though. That being said, Devin Williams was the best reliever in all of baseball.
So I have 1. Williams. 2. Bohm. 3. Cronenworth.
boltz82
Williams played in less than 5% of his teams innings this year. That could really be a guy that got hot for a handful of innings in far less meaningful role. Cronenworth’s WAR was double Bohm’s, 1.4 to .7. Given that and the superior defense Cronenworth played at multiple position, playing at a .984 fielding percentage compared to Bohm’s .957, I give it to Cronenworth, by the numbers.
stymeedone
It was a short sample for all. All could have been hot, and may never repeat their performance. You can’t just apply it to the one dominant performer. There is no separation of pitchers and hitters in this award. Williams was used like a relief pitcher, because he was one. He was the BEST at that, and not just among rookies. It was a more dominant line than we are used to Hader putting up. It doesn’t matter than none may repeat this performance, because the award is for outstanding performance as a rookie player. It is given for what they achieved, not for what you perceive their future may hold. He wasn’t volatile this season. That’s what matters.
gwaid44
He also was not the closer, meaning that he wasn’t pitching in the highest tencity innings. Just a point. He was still dominant in 28 INN
bobtillman
Cronenworth’s interesting because he was actually Rule 5 available the year BEFORE he was traded (2018).; and no one took him Then he goes out and has a great year in Durham; I believe he won the IL batting title, played all over the field (and unlike a lot of utility guys, actually defended well), and threw some effective relief innings as icing on the cake. TB probably included him in the Pham trade because they knew they would have lost him in Rule 5 in 2019.
But i agree the league caught up to him, probably because scouts had never viewed him as anything more than a AAAA guy. But Preller saw the perfect 26th man (with roster expansion) as an utility IF/relief pitcher combo, , and struck some gold.
Rohm’s going to have the better career even with some huge defensive issues, and Williams certainly had higher impact. But Jake’s fun to watch.
I
gwaid44
Bohm doesn’t have any defensive issues at the moment. He was actually above avg there, which was surprising from what scouts had said. He worked hard on D and footwork and it showed.
UnknownPoster
Bohm and Cronenworth were good
Williams was historic. Williams should win
If you want to go team ability, the brewers don’t make the playoffs with Williams. Philly still missed and SD had 2 freakin MVP Top 5 candidates. A Rookie who slumped in month 2 didn’t win you guys anything without Machado and Tatis
VonPurpleHayes
I agree with your points, but this is Rookie of the Year, not MVP. In my opinion it should be purely about individual performance and not about team impact. That being said, I still think Williams deserves it.
UnknownPoster
I fully agree. Was just making argument for the ones above claiming team performance should matter
DrDan75
Cronenworth benefitted from being an everyday player on a team that got a lot of attention last season, i.e., the Padres. If the Rays had traded him to the Giants or the Rangers instead, I doubt he’d be in this conversation at all without phenomenal numbers.
Let’s see how kind his sophomore year is to him. He’s probably going to have to prove over and over again that he’s not just a utility player.
mainepadfan
Cronenworth had a great year. Played a great 1st B when Hosmer was out- check out some of his defensive highlights. Played SS when Tatis needed a break. Finally played an excellent 2B. His numbers went down as the year went on but he played well. He helped Padres get into the playoffs. Bohm will definitely have a better career but this is about this year, and Cronenworth had a better all around year.
Yankee Clipper
Interesting how Bohm had a good 60-game season and he’s a “monster with the bat.” Torres / Andujar had incredible full rookie campaigns and were “overrated,” according to some of the same people.
Nonetheless, I don’t care for relievers winning MVP, rookie of the year or any award that isn’t pitching specific. That said, Williams’ pitching was otherworldly and he earned ROY, imho. All three were great this year and legitimate arguments can be made for all three to be deserving.
astick
The same thing happened to eod call. Ss
boltz82
I cannot give the RoY to a guy that played in a third of his teams games and 5% of their innings.
JayKay
Bohm had the better surface level stats, but Cronenworth outpaced him offensively and defensively per statcast.
Devin Williams led all eligible pitchers, in both leagues, in expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA) (explanation on that here: m.mlb.com/glossary/statcast/expected-woba), expected ERA (xERA) (explanation on that here: m.mlb.com/glossary/statcast/expected-era), and in K%.
I give my hypothetical vote to Devin Williams.
ghost of dave kingman
Bohm was 1st among rookies (Min 100 PA)
Avg
Ops
Wrc+
Rbi
Also hit .436 with runners in scoring position.
Winner
Daynlokki
Williams won NL reliever of the year. He was legit the best player at his position. Winner.
UnknownPoster
His monthly OPS were 760 then 940
He wasn’t that special
boltz82
Cronenworth had more XBH 15-23. He also had a higher WAR 1.4-.7. He also had a better fielding percentage .984 to .957.
RunDMC
Count all votes!
BlueSkies_LA
I get the case for Williams, but when was the last time RotY went to a relief pitcher?
hiflew
Scott Williamson I think.
hiflew
If the vote was for best future career, it would be Bohm in a landslide, but it’s not and he wasn’t the best rookie. Cronenworth seems like the next Jedd Gyorko or Ryan Schimpf, probably somewhere in between those two. A second baseman who has a good rookie year for San Diego and then never repeats the success again. Williams had a great rookie year, but honestly it was 27 innings. I just can’t see giving Rookie of the Year to someone that played the equivalent of 3 games.
Honestly, this is just a very mediocre crop of NL rookies, but if I had to choose one it would be Cronenworth.
coulson
Lol give me a reliever who can have this kind of accomplishment in their best 60 games span.
Dorothy_Mantooth
The fact that Williams pitched in 22 games and threw 27 innings in a 60 game season is quite impressive! If you extrapolate those numbers out to a full season, his usage would have been:
60 games / 73 IP.
That’s a heavy workload for a RP, especially in a season where there wasn’t a full spring training and there were very few days off. If he had just one bad appearance (say 3ER in 1 IP), there’s no way he could have carried a 0.33 ERA so it really goes to show how special and how dominant his season truly was. He let up 1 Earned Run over 22 games & 27 IP! I do agree that it is hard to give major individual awards to RP, but when a RP has such a consistent, dominant season like Williams, not only does he deserve to be a finalist but he also deserves to win it as well. If Ian Anderson had started 9 or 10 games this year, he would have been a great choice too, but since he only started 6 regular season games, I see why he was not chosen as a finalist.
hiflew
But you can’t extrapolate those numbers over a full season. Full seasons have ups and downs.
gg24
Wow Mr Devin Williams just wow
jd396
With the way the season was, I get we have to adjust expectations. We’re using the amount of information we’d have on the first week of June in a normal season. But… I can only go so far, I don’t care how long the season was, giving a reliever with 27 great innings the ROY over a position player is a bit too much for me.
nick1218
poor David Peterson, what did he need to do to get a mention?
6-2 3.44
not the award, but just a mention
609Collectibles
Did you guys not see Bohm’s triple slash?
Moonlight Graham
Cronenworth is 26. Why are people all geeked up about a 26-year-old who put up an .831 OPS?
While there is no age limit for the award, rookie performances are more impressive by younger players. Bohm is 2-1/2 years younger and his OPS was 50 points higher (albeit in less games).