Written by Mike Oz at YahooSports.com
When we remember the rookies of the 2016 baseball season, there will be Corey Seager and then there will be everybody else. That’s no diss to any other player, it’s a testament to the great first season Seager had with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
For that, he was named the National League Rookie of the Year on Monday in a unanimous vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Had it been a league-wide award, you can bet Seager would have won that too. He was, simply put, the most impactful rookie in the game by a wide margin. But the AL gets an award too and that vote was a little bit closer.
Detroit Tigers starter Michael Fulmer was the AL winner after an impressive 2016 campaign in which he had one of the best ERAs in the league. Fulmer was the opposite of Seager in that his success was a bit more unexpected, but the Tigers needed it just the same to stay afloat in the AL wild-card race.
In the NL, Trea Turner of the Washington Nationals finished second while Kenta Maeda, another Dodger, finished third. In the AL, Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees finished second while Tyler Naquin of the Cleveland Indians finished third.
Seager, 22, showed why the Dodgers deemed him so untouchable as other teams were trying to pry him away in trade talks. Seager hit .308 with 26 homers and 72 RBIs while playing shortstop everyday for the NL West champs.
He was the Dodgers’ best position player — without him, they wouldn’t have won the division — and his 7.5 Wins Above Replacement rating per Fangraphs wasn’t just great for a rookie, it was fifth among all players in the game. That’s why he’s also one of the finalists for NL MVP, which will be announced Thursday.
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