Baltimore Orioles Trey Mancini nominated for AL Rookie of the Year

Congratulations to Baltimore Orioles Trey Mancini for receiving a nomination from the BBWAA for the American League Rookie of the Year.

The Baltimore Orioles designated hitter, infielder, and outfielder shares the nomination with Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Andrew Benintendi of the Boston Red Sox. Judge was also nominated for AL MVP.

These three rookies clearly represented the quality of play that was on display daily in the American League East.

NL nominees and a noticeable AL snub

The nominated rookies in the National League included Josh Bell of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Paul DeJong of the St. Louis Cardinals. All of the nominees were announced by John Schlegel with MLB.com.

Surprisingly, Yuli Gurriel was not nominated for the award despite having the best batting average of the 2017 rookie class.

Where Mancini fits in with stats

Of the three AL nominees, Mancini leads in batting average, but Judge leads in all other slash stats as well as home runs and RBIs. Mancini and Benintendi both hit 26 doubles and one triple. Judge hit three triples and 24 doubles. If the BBWAA is basing the award solely on offense, then Judge will be the clear winner. His 52 home runs in one season set a record for rookies, breaking the record of 49 previously set by Mark McGwire in 1987.

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However, those outstanding home run numbers came along with some serious strikeout numbers. In the American League, Judge led with runs scored (128), home runs (52), walks (127), and strikeouts. He struck out a total of 208 times, which translates in nearly 38% of his at-bats resulting in a K. Judge struck out 27 times in the post-season, which also led the AL. Cody Bellinger was the only player in the postseason with more strikeouts, but he had 16 more at-bats and only two more Ks.

During the regular season, AL name-twins Chris Davis and Khris Davis both had 195 strikeouts. Chris Davis had a higher percentage of strikeouts than both Khris Davis and Aaron Judge had. Despite the 208 strikeouts, Aaron Judge’s home runs were the big story of the year.

Close fielding numbers

All three of the ROTY nominees spent the majority of the season in the outfield. Mancini had a fielding percentage of .981 in left field. Judge had a fielding percentage of .982 in right field. Benintendi had a slightly lower percentage of .976 in left field – but he had to deal with that Green Monster.

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It is rather safe to say that Judge will win the Rookie of the Year award. His WAR of 8.1 is so much higher that Benintendi’s 2.6 and Mancini’s 2.2. But like they say in the movies, it’s just really nice to be nominated.