The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the names of the best rookies based on the results of the 2024 regular championship. Pitchers received an honorable mention Paul Skinz from the Pittsburgh Pirates and Louis Gil from the New York Yankees.
The 22-year-old Skins, drafted No. 1 overall by Pittsburgh last year after a stellar start to the season in the farm system, made his debut with the Pirates on May 11. Almost immediately, the right-hander announced himself as an incredible talent, whose arsenal included not only a powerful fastball, but also a killer splitter, among other pitches. The Louisiana State University graduate pitched a total of 133 innings in 23 starts (the Pirates were very careful with his pitcher’s workload), which he finished with a stellar 1.96 ERA, 33.1% strikeout rate, 6.2% walk rate and 51.3% groundball rate. . In addition, Skins has a 4.3 WAR (per Fangraphs), which puts him in the top 10 of the league’s pitchers this year.
Due to the fact that the Pirates called up Skeens to Major League Baseball not at the beginning of the season, but a little over a month later, the team will not receive an additional draft pick. Meanwhile, Skins will have a full year of senior-level experience credited toward his title, meaning his eventual entry into the free agent market will occur not in the fall of 2030, but a year earlier.
Skins took 23 first places out of a possible 30 in the press vote, thus beating out two other very worthy competitors. Finishing second was Jackson Merrill, an outfielder from San Diego, and third was Jackson Chouriau, an outfielder from Milwaukee. Outside the top three was Shota Imanaga (Chicago Cubs); the rest of the notable newcomers did not score a single point and were not included in the final table. Detailed voting results can be viewed Here.
Unlike Skins, the 26-year-old Heal made his Major League Baseball debut back in 2021, but he retained his rookie status due to not pitching enough innings with the main team. The Dominican played well in the first 7 starts of his career, but early in the 2022 season he injured his elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery. The pitcher returned to baseball only at the end of last year’s regular season with two short starts in the rookie class farm club.
Few expected Gil to be in the “bombers” rotation on the eve of this season, but Gerrit Cole’s injury, which took the “ace” of the starters out of the first half of the championship, suddenly opened the way for Gil to Major League Baseball. Heal took advantage of this gift of fate, and during his first 12 starts, he dominated opposing hitters, demonstrating sensational results (ERA 1.82, 31.5% strikeouts). This turned out to be more than enough that Heal managed to maintain his place in the rotation even after Cole returned to duty. Heal, of course, spoiled the picture of his first full year in the league with a frankly mediocre August and September, but nevertheless he finished the year with a solid 3.50 ERA, 26.8% strikeouts and a high walk percentage (12.1%).
Heal collected 15 first-place finishes, 10 second-place finishes and one third-place finish in the press poll, giving him a five-point lead over his closest competitor, outfielder Colton Couser of Baltimore. Third place went to another Yankee, catcher Austin Wells, who beat Athletics closer Mason Miller by just one run. In addition, votes from the media received from Cade Smith (Cleveland), Villiers Abreu (Boston) and Wyatt Langford (Texas), ranked 5th to 8th. Detailed voting results can be found Here.
Let me also note that this is the first time since 1981 that two starting pitchers have won the Rookie of the Year award. Then Fernando Valenzuela and Dave Righetti were recognized as the best among newcomers. In total, there are only four such cases in the history of Major League Baseball: the other two occurred in 1976 (Mark Fidrich and Pat Zachry) and 1952 (Harry Bird and Joe Black).
2024-11-19 12:14:00