To no surprise, the American League and National League Rookies of the Year were awarded to the apparent front-runners. Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu took home the AL honors while New York Mets starting pitcher Jacob deGrom took home the NL honors.
Both men beat out fellow talented rookies and finalists Matt Shoemaker (SP, LAA), Dellin Betances (RP, NYY), Billy Hamilton (OF, CIN) and Kolten Wong (2B, STL). Abreu, the 27-year-old Cuban defector, received all 30 first-place votes and deGrom, the 26-year-old minor-league journeyman, received 26 out of the 30 first place votes.
Abreu defected from Cuba last year and landed a six-year, $68 million contract from the White Sox last offseason and began contributing immediately. The slugger batted .317/.383/.581 with 36 home runs and 107 RBIs. He won the Silver Slugger award for the American League and was named to the All-Star team in his first year in the MLB. Abreu also became the fourth rookie in the history of the award to have maintained a .300 batting average to go along with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, joining Albert Pujols (2001), Mike Piazza (1993) and Walt Dropo (1950), according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Despite impressive season from AL ROY finalists Matt Shoemaker (16-4 with a 3.04 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in 27 total appearances, 20 starts) and Dellin Betances (5-0 with a 1.40 ERA, 0.78 WHIP and 135 strikeouts in 90 innings), Abreu led all rookies in home runs (36), RBIs (107), hits (176), doubles (35), runs scored (80), on-base percentage (.383), slugging percentage (.581) and OPS (.964).
deGrom also achieved a rare accomplishment for a rookie by posting an ERA under a 2.75 and adding at least one strikeout per inning. He joined Jose Fernandez (2013), Roy Oswalt (2001), Hideo Nomo (1995) and Dwight Gooden (1984) as the only rookies in history to do so, according to ESPN Stats & Information. All of those mentioned above won the Rookie of the Year award that season with the exception of Oswalt, who was runner-up to Albert Pujols.
The 2014 NL Rookie of the Year posted a 9-6 record with a 2.69 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 144 strikeouts in 22 starts (140 IP) with the Mets this season. He began his career in the Mets minor league system in 2010 and got off to a poor start. He posted a 5.19 ERA in six starts before suffering an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery, which forced him to miss all of 2011. Since returned in 2012, he's started 52 games in the minor leagues and amassed a 20-10 record with a 3.48 ERA before earning his promotion to the Mets in 2014.
Stay tuned this week as the MLB plans to announce more awards from the 2014 season.
