Great Rookie of Year duos
Will Judge, left, and Bellinger measure up?
Major League Baseball’s awards season gets underway Monday with tension-free coronations: Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger will be named American and National League rookies of the year, respectively, and the only stunner would be if it’s not unanimous.
The pair will also fare well in MVP voting released this week, raising a question: Where does this rookie pair rank among all-time duos?
While Judge set a major league rookie record with 52 home runs and Bellinger the NL mark with 39 despite making his debut April 25, their stories are only just now unfolding. And Rookie of the Year is perhaps the most random of the awards doled out by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America: You can only win once, at a very early point in player development, and the timing of a player’s debut greatly impacts his showing.
Sometimes, however, the top rookie honors foretell excellence. With that, we present the five greatest Rookie of the Year duos ever.
1. 1967: Tom Seaver (NL) and Rod Carew (AL)
Career Wins Above Replacement, All-Star Games, MVP/Cy Youngs: Seaver 111, 12, 3; Carew 81, 18, 1.
Impact: Seaver’s two decades of dominance produced 311 wins, a 2.86 ERA and a 25-win season for the ’69 Miracle Mets. Carew won seven batting titles, and his 3,053 hits still rank 25th all time. Seaver and Carew are the only rookie-winning duo to each earn firstballot Hall of Fame election, Seaver with a staggering 98.8% in 1992.
2. 2001: Albert Pujols and Ichiro Suzuki
Career WAR, All-Star Games, MVPs: Pujols 99, 10, 3; Suzuki 60, 10, 1.
Impact: Arguably the greatest rightand left-handed batters of this century, Pujols and Suzuki were instant stars, as Suzuki became the second AL player to win MVP honors in his rookie season, while Pujols finished fourth in the NL race on the strength of a 37-homer, 130RBI year. While Suzuki debuted at 27 thanks to a decorated career in Japan’s top league, he has nonetheless posted 3,080 major league hits. Pujols, meanwhile, is at 611 homers; both will waltz into Cooperstown five years after they decide to stop playing.
3. 1956: Frank Robinson and Luis Aparicio
Career WAR, All-Star Games, MVPs: Robinson 107, 14, 2; Aparicio 56, 13, 0.
Impact: Robinson could carry this duo on his own, with 586 home runs, four seasons in which he led his league in OPS and as the only player to win MVP awards in both leagues. Aparicio’s legacy should not be discounted, however: He was the game’s pre-eminent defensive shortstop in his 17-year ca- reer, winning nine Gold Gloves and nine times leading the AL in stolen bases, finishing with 506. The first Venezuelan elected to the Hall of Fame — a result he called “a triumph of Venezuela, for all Venezuelans” — Aparicio embraced his role as the modern godfather of the game there.
4. 1977: Andre Dawson and Eddie Murray
Career WAR, All-Star Games, MVPs: Dawson 65, 8, 1; Murray 68, 8, 0.
Impact: The last of three duos to both earn Cooperstown enshrinement, Dawson and Murray narrowly claimed top rookie honors over Steve Henderson and Mitchell Page, respectively. Yeah, the voters dodged a bullet. Only Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron had 3,000 hits and 500 home runs when Murray completed that double in 1996. While he won no MVP awards, Murray twice placed second and had eight top-10 finishes. Dawson won his lone MVP by hitting 49 homers for the last-place Cubs in 1987 and had two runner-up finishes as an Expo.
5. 2012: Bryce Harper and Mike Trout
Career WAR, All-Star Games, MVPs: Harper 26, 5, 1; Trout 55, 6, 2.
Impact: OK, so this entry is based partially on spec. But barring major injury, there seems little doubt Trout will finish as the greatest player in this bunch. While career WAR might not be the be-all metric, Trout, at 26, is already halfway to Robinson’s total, has two MVPs and three hotly debated runnerup finishes. Harper? He might just have to settle for a $400 million contract, 500 to 600 home runs and status as the most famous player of his era.
Best of the rest
1964: Dick Allen (59 WAR, 7 All-Star Games, 1 MVP), Tony Oliva (43, 8, 0). 1991: Jeff Bagwell (80, 4, 1), Chuck Knoblauch (45, 4, 0).
1997: Scott Rolen (70, 7, 0), Nomar Garciaparra (44, 6, 0).
1993: Mike Piazza (59, 12, 0), Tim Salmon (41, 0, 0).
2006: Hanley Ramirez (38, 3, 0), Justin Verlander (57, 6, 2).
2007: Ryan Braun (46, 6, 1), Dustin Pedroia (52, 6, 1).
2015: Kris Bryant (20, 2, 1), Carlos Correa (16, 1, 0).