Kyle Lewis Another Mariners Rookie of the Year
The BBWAA announced on Tuesday that Kyle Lewis, centerfielder of the Seattle Mariners, was the unanimous AL Rookie of the Year Award winner for the 2020 season. The newest Mariners Rookie of the Year easily beat out second-place finisher Luis Robert of the Chicago White Sox and third-place finisher Cristian Javier of the Houston Astros. Lewis led AL rookies in FanGraphs WAR, at 1.7, just ahead of Luis Robert and Sean Murphy, both of whom finished with 1.5 fWAR (Murphy was fourth overall in AL ROY voting). A teammate of Lewis, pitcher Justus Sheffield, finished with 1.6 fWAR, but didn’t get any votes for the award.
Baseball fans don’t think of the Seattle Mariners when it comes to the Rookie of the Year Award. For knowledgeable fans, the first team that springs to mind when it comes to the Rookie of the Year Award is the Dodgers. The franchise has had 18 players win the award, which is twice as many as the next team on the list, the New York Yankees. Dodgers winners include five who played with the team in Brooklyn and 13 who have won the award since they moved to Los Angeles. The first-ever Rookie of the Year was Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1947.
The Seattle Mariners weren’t around in 1947. They didn’t come into existence until 1977, but they’ve fared pretty well in Rookie of the Year voting since then. In fact, only three teams have more Rookie of the Year winners than the Mariners since 1977. The Dodgers top the list, with 11, including four straight winners from 1979 to 1982 and five straight from 1992 to 1996. Next are the Oakland Athletics, with seven, including three in a row from 1986 to 1988. Finally, the Atlanta Braves have five Rookie of the Year winners since 1977.
That’s it. That’s the list. After the top three, the Mariners, Cubs, Marlins, and Mets are tied for fourth in Rookie of the Year winners since 1977. The star power among this group of teams are the Mets, with Darryl Strawberry (1983), Dwight Gooden (1984), Jacob deGrom (2014), and Pete Alonso (2019) bringing home the hardware. For all the troubles they had off the diamond, Strawberry and Gooden were incredible talents on the field. deGrom has been one of the best pitchers in baseball for the last seven years and Alonso holds the record for home runs in a season by a rookie.
With one exception, the four Mariner Rookie of the Year winners don’t have the acclaim of the Mets foursome. That exception is Ichiro Suzuki, who came to the U.S. from Japan in 2001 and led the AL in hits, steals, and batting average, while playing Gold Glove defense in right field. He was an All-Star, the AL Rookie of the Year, and the AL MVP. He joined a franchise that had lost three Hall of Fame talents in the preceding three years (Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Alex Rodriguez) and helped lead the team to an MLB-record 116 wins.
As good as he was in 2001, Ichiro didn’t win the award unanimously. The second-place finisher, Cleveland pitcher CC Sabathia, received one 1st place vote from Chris Assenheimer, who “felt that Sabathia better met the criteria of what a rookie is in the truest sense of the word.” Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano finished third and Angels shortstop David Eckstein finished fourth. That’s quite the class of rookies.
The year before Ichiro came to the Mariners from Japan, relief pitcher Kazuhiro Sasaki made the journey. With 37 saves, a 3.16 ERA, and 78 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings, Sasaki beat out Oakland outfielder Terrence Long and Royals outfielder Mark Quinn for AL Rookie of the Year honors. According to FanGraphs’ WAR, Sasaki ranked 14th among rookie pitchers in the American League and 22nd among all rookies (he had 0.6 fWAR). The rookie fWAR leaders in the AL that year were Angels catcher Bengie Molina (2.2 fWAR), Twins pitcher Mark Redman (2.2 fWAR), and Athletics pitcher Barry Zito (2.1 fWAR). Molina finished fourth in the voting, while Redman and Zito were tied for sixth. Here’s another example of how the year 2000 was a different time.
The first Seattle Mariner to win the AL Rookie of the Year Award became a franchise icon and is still known around Seattle as “Mr. Mariner.” That would be Alvin Davis, who burst upon the scene in 1984 with 27 homers, 116 RBI, a .284/.391/.497 batting line and 5.3 fWAR, tops among AL rookies. Prior to his award-winning season, Davis had not played above Double-A. During spring training, he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that his goal for the season was “to reach the major leagues by September.” He started the 1984 season in Triple-A, where he played just one game.
The Mariners Opening Day first baseman was Ken Phelps, who started the year with five hits in his first ten at bats, including two home runs. Then he was hit by a pitch and suffered a broken finger that sidelined him until the middle of May. Davis was called up and got off to a scorching start, hitting .320/.428/.600, with 14 homers and 47 RBI through his first 55 career games. He cooled down a bit from that point on (.264/.370/.441 in 97 games), but was still more than worthy of the trophy for best rookie in the American League.
For his part, Phelps returned to the lineup as the DH and had a very good season, hitting .241/.378/.521, with 24 homers in 101 games. He was actually a more productive hitter by wRC+ than Davis (143 wRC+ to 140), but had 317 fewer plate appearances and no defensive value (he played just nine games in the field).
Unlike Sasaki, there was no question Alvin Davis deserved to win the 1984 AL Rookie of the Year Award. He led all AL rookies with 5.3 fWAR. His teammate, pitcher Mark Langston, was second among rookies, with 4.4 fWAR. Other notable rookies that year included Kirby Puckett (3.3 fWAR), Roger Clemens (3.4 fWAR), and Bret Saberhagen (1.9 fWAR). Fittingly, Langston finished second in the voting and Puckett finished third.
As good as Kyle Lewis was this year, he did struggle quite a bit in the second half of the shortened season. In 29 games played through August 23, Lewis hit .368/.456/.585, with a ridiculous and unsustainable .444 BABIP. He walked 14 percent of the time and struck out 22 percent of the time. In his next 29 games, from August 25 to the end of the season, Lewis hit .150/.265/.280, with a .204 BABIP. His walk rate remained at 14 percent, but his strikeout rate surged to 37 percent. His overall stat line looks good, but Lewis is still a work in progress.
-Bobby Mueller
