The BBWAA presented the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards, selecting two unanimous winners. Aaron Judge (New York Yankees) won the award in the American League and Cody Bellinger (Los Angeles Dodgers) in the National League. Both of them set several records in their debut seasons, even though the conditions were rather different for both of them.
The MLB season was dominated by the homerun and this is also reflected in the rookie election. Both winners led all the newcomers – Judge was even more powerful throughout the American League. Even though the competition offered convincing performances, the journalists of the Baseball Writers Association of America did not ask themselves whether anyone else in the respective league should get votes.
Only for the fourth time ever, there was no discussion whatsoever about both rookie awards. Prior to that, Mark McGwire and Benito Santiago (1987), Tim Salmon and Mike Piazza (1993) and Nomar Garciaparra and Scott Rolen (1997) were unanimously elected in the same year. Judge and Bellinger are thus also the unanimous rookies of a year number 22 and 23.
Rarely, however, the matter was so clear.
Bellinger was the first rookie ever to lead a team with at least 100 victories in both the home races and the RBI. He’s also the 18th. Rookie of the year for the Dodgers, who had already celebrated Corey Seager last year.
Judge started his season with a monster homerun in the Monument Park and showed us where to go. He beat 52 home runs in total, beating McGrewe’s rookie record of 49. He also led the American League in homeruns, runs and walks and is the first Yankees rookie since a certain Derek Jeter, who was honored in 1996.
The paths of the two top rookies could not have been more different. Bellinger was MLB’s No. 7 player in the prospect gurus of Baseball America before the season – only two national league players were standing in front of him with Dansby Swanson of the Braves and Alex Reyes in the Cardinals organisation. Swanson had to fight and even returned to the Minor Leagues for a short time. Reyes, on the other hand, did not play at MLB in 2017.
Bellinger was the favourite rookie of the year, with rankings like this one a season ago being mostly pure luck in baseball. However, Bellinger was convincing from the outset and benefited from numerous injuries at the Dodgers, who had to give up First Baseman Adrian Gonzalez and various outfield starters for a long time. The chance for Bellinger, who grabbed it from the end of April on and played himself right at the top. With 39 homeruns, he immediately set a new national league rookie record and let Gonzalez almost forget.
Judge’s situation, on the other hand, was quite different. Although the outfielder started the season in the MLB, General Manager Brian Cashman insisted on it. Judge’s performances in jumping training and in his 27 games, which he had already played in 2016, did not really justify this.
But Judge silenced all doubters relatively quickly. With outstanding power, he shattered various rookie best marks and even played his way into the closer MVP selection. If you look at the numbers alone, even there aren’t any two opinions, you have to look at the weak middle section, where the outfielder didn’t succeed at the record. Nevertheless, according to FanGraphs, he was the most valuable player with his 8.2 Wins Above Replacement – in the entire MLB!
The main reason for this enormous increase compared to 2016 may be that he worked meticulously on his weaknesses over the winter. His discipline on the record is unparalleled these days, he managed to let the Breaking Balls pass deep and outside the strike zone for most of the season and thus achieve several walks.
“It was an incredible year,”said Judge, who looked back on his year in the MLB Network:”Back then in jumping training I was fighting for my job, that was my attitude in every jumping training session,” and this was true long before his MLB debut:”Even in the Minor Leagues I always thought that I had to go out to earn a place in the team. You won’t be given anything. It was the same thing when I was told that I would be the Starting Right Fielder. You have to earn your job every day. Looking forward to next year, I’m still fighting for my job in Right Field and my place in the lineup.”
This attitude was not unfamiliar to Bellinger either. Even with his high ranking in the prospect rankings, he couldn’t be sure of landing in the MLB squad before September,”I knew I wouldn’t be in the squad after the jumping training, so I did everything I could to prepare for the season,”recalled Bellinger at the start of the season.
Then Gonzalez was injured for the first time this season and Bellinger’s time had come:”To be called at the right time was really important, especially as far as the mental aspect was concerned, in order to achieve my goals.”.
Although both players stood out, there is room for improvement. About strikeouts. Judge led the AL with a rookie record of 208 strikeouts, while Bellinger’s score was 146 on 64 walks. Bellinger Judges also beat Judge’s playoff series record (27) from the ALCS with 29 strikes in the World Series.
The title of Rookie of the Year is a great honour, as it shows that a mostly young player has succeeded in adapting so difficultly to the MLB in principle straight away. In no other sport is the jump from the Minor Leagues or the College or high school to the top of the classroom as high as here.
And yet it’s just a snapshot. The real challenge is only now, from the second year onwards. The baseball world has been watching both of them for a year now and the analytics departments and scouts have been able to get an idea of them. So in the new year, the opponents will have a way of attacking them better.
The goal now is to adapt to the changes of the competition. And this game will then be continued for the rest of their careers, as with any other player.
What happens from now on will show how good Bellinger and Judge really are. But what they have delivered in their rookie campaigns will go down in the annals. We may have seen the best rookies of the year in baseball history in 2017.
This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.
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