Paul Skenes of the Pirates has won the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year award, as voted on by the BBWAA. I happened to be a voter on this award this year, one of the few offseason awards with some actual mystery to it. Ballots get filled out at the end of the regular season (in other words, the playoffs don’t count), but I started thinking about this race long before that. And in that vein, I wrote down my thought process all the way to the name I finally checked off. Here goes.
The following was written on Sept. 29:
Greetings from the not-so-distant past. The Mets and Braves have a doubleheader tomorrow — remember that madness? — before the playoffs start on Tuesday. Hopefully it was an amazing postseason. I have work to do before we get there, though, and I’m very pleased to do just that.
I have been tasked with a vote for the Jackie Robinson National League Rookie of the Year award by the BBWAA. I take this vote incredibly seriously. What I’m going to do right now is figure out my vote as I’m writing this. I don’t know right now which way I’m going to go at the top between Jackson Merrill of the Padres and Paul Skenes of the Pirates.
Now, there are three spots on the ballot and I only know going in who my top two will be, so let’s first decide on the third-place vote. The candidates:
Shota Imanaga, Cubs . bWAR: 3.2/fWAR: 3.0. He came over from Japan and was dominant from the start. He was 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA (138 ERA+), 1.02 WHIP and 174 strikeouts against 28 walks in 173 ⅓ innings. There are some seasons where this would be enough to win the award. We sometimes see complaints about a player like Imanaga being considered a rookie. After all, he spent eight years in NPB (Japan’s highest league) and is 30 years old. Still, he’s a rookie in MLB, so he’s considered on equal footing with everyone else here. The rules are the rules.
. bWAR: 3.2/fWAR: 3.0. He came over from Japan and was dominant from the start. He was 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA (138 ERA+), 1.02 WHIP and 174 strikeouts against 28 walks in 173 ⅓ innings. There are some seasons where this would be enough to win the award. We sometimes see complaints about a player like Imanaga being considered a rookie. After all, he spent eight years in NPB (Japan’s highest league) and is 30 years old. Still, he’s a rookie in MLB, so he’s considered on equal footing with everyone else here. The rules are the rules. Jackson Chourio, Brewers . bWAR: 3.8/fWAR: 3.9. Chourio debuted on Opening Day at age 20. He had a slow few months and then everything clicked for him. He was especially valuable to the NL Central champs when superstar Christian Yelich went down for the season. Though Chourio was only hitting .222/.276/.354 through June 16, he finishes the season slashing .275/.327/.464 with 29 doubles, four triples, 21 homers, 79 RBI, 80 runs and 22 stolen bases. He’s very close to being a five-tool star at this point.
. bWAR: 3.8/fWAR: 3.9. Chourio debuted on Opening Day at age 20. He had a slow few months and then everything clicked for him. He was especially valuable to the NL Central champs when superstar Christian Yelich went down for the season. Though Chourio was only hitting .222/.276/.354 through June 16, he finishes the season slashing .275/.327/.464 with 29 doubles, four triples, 21 homers, 79 RBI, 80 runs and 22 stolen bases. He’s very close to being a five-tool star at this point. Masyn Winn, Cardinals. bWAR: 4.9/fWAR: 3.4. Winn scores out as an exceptional defender at shortstop and that part of his game did a ton of heavy lifting on Baseball Reference WAR. He finishes his rookie season in 150 games having hit .267/.314/.416 (102 OPS+) with 32 doubles, five triples, 15 homers, 57 RBI, 85 runs and 11 steals.
Several other players had very impressive rookie seasons, like Gavin Stone, Spencer Schwellenbach, Tobias Myers, Joey Ortiz, Tyler Fitzgerald and Michael Busch, among others. It’s just that with only three votes, there wasn’t reason to heavily cover any of these guys past the three bullet points above.
I’m going with Chourio. It was a very close call over Imanaga and Winn was a firm, and impressive, fifth for me.
Now, onto the main event.
Jackson Merrill, Padres
bWAR: 4.4. fWAR: 5.2
First things first: This award is for the best rookie. Even if there was a
NL Rookie of the Year voting: How CBS Sports writer picked between Paul Skenes, Jacksons Merrill and Chourio
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