Braves' Michael Harris II edges teammate Spencer Strider for NL ROY.
The Atlanta Braves believed Michael Harris II had the ability to at least hold his own in the majors after impressing the front office and coaching staff in spring training in both 2021 and 2022.At the minimum, they knew he was the best defensive center fielder in the organization, and with Braves center fielders hitting a collective .186 through May 27 and the team struggling with a record under .500, they decided to roll the dice.
The Braves called up the 21-year-old from Double-A even though he had played just 43 games above Class A. Harris rewarded the Braves' belief with one of the best rookie seasons in franchise history, hitting .297/.339/.515 with 19 home runs and 20 stolen bases while playing outstanding defense.
Harris beat out teammate Spencer Strider to win National League Rookie of the Year honors on Monday, collecting 22 first-place votes and 134 points to Strider's 8 first-place votes and 103 points. St. Louis Cardinals utility player Brendan Donovan finished third in the voting.
Harris and Strider become just the fourth pair of teammates to finish 1-2 in the voting since ranked balloting began in 1980, joining the Braves' Craig Kimbrel and Freddie Freeman in 2011, the Cubs' Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith in 1989 and the Mariners' Alvin Davis and Mark Langston in 1984.
Harris is the ninth player in Braves franchise history to win Rookie of the Year honors.
Harris was hitting .305 for Double-A Mississippi when the Braves called him up. Two days later, Strider made his first start after pitching out of the bullpen to begin the season. The Braves immediately took off, winning 15 in a row from June 1 through June 15, with Harris hitting .370 in that stretch. The Braves eventually rallied from 10.5 games behind the Mets in late May to win their fifth straight NL East title.
"He's very calm, and he's very consistent," manager Brian Snitker said of Harris in early September. "It's the whole thing. He can beat you a lot of different ways. With his glove, with his arm, with his legs, with his bat. That's pretty good qualities to have in a player that can do so much to impact the game."
Harris' all-around tools -- his Statcast measurements included a 92nd percentile ranking in outs above average on defense, a 95th percentile ranking in sprint speed and a 95th percentile in arm strength -- helped him to a 5.3-WAR season, making him just the 34th rookie position player with 5.0 WAR since the divisional era began in 1969.
He did it in just 114 games, the fewest of any player on the list. The only Rookies of the Year since 2010 with a higher WAR were Mike Trout, Jose Abreu, Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso.
In mid-August, the Braves rewarded Harris with an eight-year contract extension worth $72 million that runs through 2030, with two club option seasons that could make it worth $102 million over 10 years. Not bad for a kid who grew up a Braves fan in Stockbridge, Ga., 35 miles south of Truist Park on I-75.
"Yeah, I definitely never thought about the year 2030," Harris said when he signed the deal. "That's far. I'm just glad to be able to stay here in Atlanta that long."
The Braves selected the hometown kid in the third round of the 2018 draft -- when many teams viewed Harris as a pitcher. Braves scout Dana Brown, now the scouting director, saw an outfielder with power and speed. As Buster Olney wrote earlier this year, the Braves invited Harris to hit at Truist Park before the draft and he filled the outfield seats with home runs in batting practice.
Harris told the Braves: "I am a hitter."
Harris, however, hadn't hit for much power in the minors, slugging seven home runs at Class A Rome in 2021 and just five in those 43 games at Double-A. Upon joining the Braves, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer had Harris make an adjustment, lowering his hands. Harris took to the change immediately and his power took off.
Harris spent his first three months hitting at the bottom of a strong Atlanta lineup, but was hitting third the final week of the season when the Braves swept the Mets in a crucial series to wrap up the division title.
"As he matures and he becomes this player we all know he is, he will probably be at that number 2 or 3 spot for a long time," Snitker said near the end of the season.
Strider also had a remarkable season, going 11-5 with a 2.67 ERA and 202 strikeouts in 131.2 innings. Strider became just the 10th rookie since 1969 with 200 strikeouts and the first since Yu Darvish in 2012. His 13.81 strikeouts per nine innings was the second highest ever for a pitcher with at least 100 innings, behind only Gerrit Cole's 13.82 in 2019.
"Everybody tries to pinpoint specific checkpoints that they're trying to achieve," Strider said when reaching that 200-strikeout milestone. "I don't think I was trying to strike out 200 guys in a season. That wasn't a goal of mine. It was just to win games, keep us in games, things that I can control and have control over."
The voting may have been closer if Strider hasn't missed the final two-plus weeks with an oblique strain. Strider also received his own financial reward when he signed a six-year, $75 million extension in early October that includes a $22 million club option for 2029.
Harris and Strider will also receive an extra bonus via the pre-arbitration bonus pool agreed to in the new labor deal: $750,000 for Harris and $500,000 for Strider.
Seattle Mariners' Julio Rodriguez named AL Rookie of the Year.
Julio Rodriguez, the Seattle Mariners' dynamic young center fielder, was named the American League Rookie of the Year by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Monday, topping Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman and Cleveland Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan.Rodriguez received 29 of 30 first-place votes and one second for 148 points from a Baseball Writers' Association of America panel. Rutschman came in second with one first-place vote, 18 second-place votes and nine thirds. Kwan came in third with Royals infielder Bobby Witt Jr., Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena and Mariners pitcher George Kirby also receiving votes.
Rodriguez electrified the city of Seattle and captivated an entire nation of baseball fans with his youthful exuberance, pronounced swagger and wide-ranging talent. At 21, he slashed .284/.345/.509 with 28 home runs, 25 stolen bases and 25 doubles while propelling the Mariners to their first postseason berth since 2001, snapping the longest active drought among the four major North American professional sports.
Along the way, Rodriguez consistently came through in big spots, dazzling with his defense and power and speed. His 5.3 FanGraphs wins above replacement tied that of Rutschman for the rookie lead and was topped by only 21 position players throughout the sport.
Rodriguez is the fifth Mariners player to win Rookie of the Year, after Alvin Davis (1984), Kazuhiro Sasaki (2000), Ichiro Suzuki (2001) and Kyle Lewis (2020).
Only two other players since 1900 have accumulated at least 28 home runs, 25 stolen bases and 25 doubles in their age-21-or-younger seasons -- Mike Trout and Andruw Jones. Rodriguez is the first player ever to combine 25 home runs with 25 stolen bases in his first season in the big leagues and the third to do so while still rookie eligible, along with Trout and Chris Young, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Rutschman finished with a .254/.362/.445 slash line to go along with 13 homers and 35 doubles while handling the rigors from behind home plate. The Orioles, widely expected to finish last in the hyper-competitive AL East, began the 2022 season 16-24 but went 67-55 after Rutschman's debut on May 21, nearly making the playoffs.
Kwan, already one of the most skilled hitters in the sport, batted .298/.373/.400 with 168 hits, the most by a Cleveland rookie in the expansion era (since 1961). The only player in the majors with a higher contact rate last season was Minnesota Twins infielder Luis Arraez, who won the AL batting title.
The Mariners envisioned Rodriguez as a potential star when they signed him out of the Dominican Republic for $1.75 million in the summer of 2017, but he profiled more as a power-hitting corner outfielder. Rodriguez worked to turn himself into a five-tool center fielder, zooming through the Mariners' minor league system -- despite losing an entire season to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 -- and cracking the team's Opening Day roster this spring.
Rodriguez struggled mightily in his first month, posting a .544 OPS during that stretch, but he recovered enough to make the All-Star team and ultimately put on a show during the Home Run Derby from Dodger Stadium.
Less than two months later, the Mariners rewarded him with a long-term extension that will pay him anywhere between $210 million and $470 million over the life of his career, an unprecedented -- and highly incentivized -- contract for someone with less than a full year of major league service time.
