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In Sunday’s blog we took a look at who might win the Most Valuable Player and Cy young awards. I thought today we could go through who might be the Rookie of the Year.

In the American League Rookie of the Year race, it looked like Josh Jung of the Texas Rangers was going to win the award. Now he still might, but his candidacy has been slowed down by a broken hand. Jung is hitting .274 and leads all rookies in home runs with 22 and RBIs with 67. Jung hasn’t played since August 6th due to his injury, but reports are that he’ll return at some point this season. Depending on when that return happens Jung might not have enough time to reestablish himself in the Rookie of the Year race.

Because he’s 29 years old and spent 7 seasons playing in the Japanese league people may not remember that Masataka Yoshida of the Boston Red Sox is in his rookie year. Yoshida is leading all rookies in batting average as he’s hitting .300. His other numbers are solid as he has 12 home runs and 56 RBIs. He’s also the rookie leader in hits with 121. We’ve seen multiple players come over from Japan and win the Rookie of the Year award. The last time was just 5 years ago when Shohei Ohtani was the Rookie of the Year in the American League.

Now you’re going to hear other names like Gunnar Henderson of the Baltimore Orioles, Anthony Volpe of the New York Yankees and Tristan Casas another Red Sox rookie because they play for bigger market teams. Henderson has been solid and has 19 home runs but is hitting just .237. Volpe has played in more games than any other rookie (120) and does have 16 home runs but is hitting just .212. Casas struggled in the first half of the season but does have 19 home runs and has the best batting average of these three at .254. I don’t think that any of these three has done enough to win Rookie of the Year, but they’ll get some votes because of the teams they play for.

A name you won’t hear that deserves some consideration for Rookie of the Year is Maikel Garcia of the Kansas City Royals. Garcia is hitting .290 in 86 games this season and has 18 stolen bases. Garcia was called up a little over a month into the season, so he hasn’t played as many games as some of the other rookies, but he’s been an everyday player for Kansas City since being brought up. Of course, the problem Garcia is going to run into in the Rookie of the Year voting is that he plays for with the second worst record in Major League Baseball.

Coming into this season Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks was the odds-on favorite to win the N.L. Rookie of the Year and he’s been solid. Carroll is tied for the most home runs by a National League rookie with 21. He’s also leading all National League rookies in stolen bases with 36. Carroll is hitting .269 and has 59 RBIs, so he has the numbers to be considered for the award.

What’s interesting in the National League is the fact that the Cincinnati Reds have not one, not two but three rookies that should get votes for the Rookie of the Year award. Elly De La Cruz seems to get most of the media attention. De La Cruz has played in 59 games this season. He has 10 home runs and 26 RBIs as well as 18 stolen bases while hitting .263. De La Cruz does strikeout a lot as he’s already struck out 90 times in his 59 games, but we all know strikeouts no longer mean what they used to for hitters. Spencer Steer has played in more games than any other National League rookie (116) and he also has more hits than any other National League rookie 117. Steer has 18 home runs, 66 RBIs and has reached double digits in steals with 10 while hitting .272. Reds shortstop Matt McLain is also in this conversation. McLain has played in 94 games and is hitting .294 with 12 home runs and 41 RBIs while playing what might be the toughest defensive position. McLain has only made 1 error at shortstop this season and has a fielding percentage of .994.

Now it’s doubtful that any of the Cincinnati players will win Rookie of the Year because they will probably cancel each other out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them all end up in the Top 10 of the Rookie of the Year voting, but I don’t anyone of them will win the award.

Even though he’s only hitting .226 I wouldn’t be surprised to see Francisco Alvarez of the New York Mets get quite a few Rookie of the Year votes. Alvarez is tied with Carroll for most home runs by a National League rookie with 21 while playing in 26 less games than Carroll has. Alvarez is also handling the catching duties for the Mets and even though their season has been disappointing Alvarez is one of their few bright spots.

There are some Rookie of the Year candidates. Let me know who you think will win the award in each league. Maybe you think it’s someone that I’ve listed here or maybe there’s someone you’ve noticed that I didn’t mention. I’m not sure if there’s been one rookie that has run away with the award this season which should make the voting interesting. Who knows maybe there’s even a pitcher on your list that you think could win the award.

As always remember to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.