Going into the 2021 campaign, Gregg Jefferies was the only player to garner Rookie of the Year support in two different seasons. With his excellent stint as a late season call up in 1988, Jefferies drew a single second place vote to finish tied for sixth in the NL Rookie of the Year election. Jefferies followed that up with a respectable full-length 1989 campaign and finished third on the NL rookie ballot, in the process becoming the first player to pick up votes in multiple seasons. However, the special circumstances of the abbreviated 60-game 2020 campaign, set the stage for four players—Atlanta Braves pitcher Ian Anderson, Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, Baltimore Orioles first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, and Miami Marlins pitcher Sixto Sanchez—to draw support on the 2020 Rookie of the Year ballot and still retain their rookie status for 2021. After completing their solid 2021 campaigns and finishing a respective sixth in the AL Rookie of the Year vote and fifth in the NL vote, Ryan Mountcastle and Ian Anderson have now joined Jefferies as the only players to accomplish this unique feat.
Ryan Mountcastle
The
Baltimore Orioles selected Ryan Mountcastle in the first round of the
2015 Amateur Draft with the thirty-sixth overall pick which the club had
received as compensation for losing Nelson Cruz to free agency. Originally drafted as a shortstop, Mountcastle was slid over to third
base when he was promoted to Double-A Bowie for the 2017 season. With
his move up to Triple-A Norfolk for 2019, the organization abandoned
playing him at the hot corner and decided to split him between the less
defensively demanding positions of first base and left field. While in
Norfolk, Mountcastle showcased his power, finishing 2019 with 25 home
runs and ranking among the International League leaders in multiple
offensive categories. After earning his late August call up,
Mountcastle scorched opposing pitchers and finished 2020 with a 137 OPS+
while batting .333 with 5 home runs and 23 RBI in 35 games. Mountcastle collected a sole third place vote on the 2020 AL Rookie of
the Year ballot from Baltimore-based Associated Press writer Dave Ginsburg which put him in a three-way tie with Jesus Luzardo and Brady Singer for eighth in the election.
Perhaps
due to his limitations on defense, Mountcastle ranked well out of the
top-ten in the preseason prospect lists, only checking in at 28th on Baseball Prospectus’ index and slotting all the way down in 63rd on Baseball America’s registry. While Mountcastle did not garner as high a ranking as many of the
other potential Rookie of the Year candidates, with his ability to hit
for power, it was not hard to imagine him being able to factor into the
vote. The 24-year-old slugger got off to a slow start in 2021, batting
just .226 with a .628 OPS through the first two months of the season. However, Mountcastle’s bat came alive in June as he clubbed nine home
runs, hit .327, and posted a sensational 1.015 OPS while driving in 26
runs in 26 games. Mountcastle received two awards for his outstanding
June, being named AL Rookie of the Month as well as AL Player of the
Week for a six-game stretch from May 31 to June 6 in which he went deep
four times, collected 10 RBI, and batted .458 with an eye-popping 1.563
OPS. His dominant month also included a June 19 game in Baltimore where
he went 4 for 4, hitting home runs in each of his first three plate
appearances before adding a single in his final at bat. Mountcastle
drove in four runs and scored three times but it wasn’t enough as the
O’s bullpen coughed up a 7-4 lead, allowing the Toronto Blue Jays to
cross the plate six times in the top of the ninth inning to lose, 10-7. The youngster’s excellent June moved his batting average up to .263 and
increased his OPS to .770. Yet, when the calendar turned to July,
Mountcastle began to struggle again. Then, just as his bat started to
heat back up with an eight-game hitting streak, he went on the 7-day
injured list with a concussion after receiving a hard tag to the head
from shortstop Wander Franco while attempting to steal second base
during an August 6 game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Mountcastle
returned to the field on August 17 and got exactly one hit in each of
the next five contests to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 13
games. Mountcastle’s hitting streak came in the midst of Baltimore’s
19-game losing streak which spanned from August 3 to 24. Despite the
concussion and the O’s losing streak, Mountcastle had an outstanding
August, smacking 8 home runs and driving in 16 runs in just 19 games
while dominating pitchers with a .357 batting average and 1.183 OPS. Although Mountcastle’s bat cooled in September, he continued to blast
round-trippers and on September 12 hit his 28th longball of the season
to tie the O’s rookie home run record set by franchise icon Cal Ripken
Jr. in 1982. Four nights later, Mountcastle launched New York Yankees
starter Jordan Montgomery’s pitch deep over Camden Yards’ center field
wall to establish a new O’s rookie benchmark.
Mountcastle
finished his official rookie season with 33 home runs, 89 RBI, a .255
batting average, .309 OBP, and .796 OPS. The young slugger’s impressive
longball total led all MLB rookies while his 89 RBI was just one shy of
the rookie-leading mark set by Texas Rangers outfielder Adolis García. Mountcastle saw the majority of his at bats come out of the clean-up
spot and the two-hole in the batting order. He spent the bulk of his
time on defense at first base but also was used as the club’s designated
hitter and occasionally played left field as well. Mountcastle’s home
run and RBI marks led the Orioles as he was one of the few bright spots
for a club that scored the next-to-the least amount of runs in the AL
and tied the Arizona Diamondbacks with an MLB-worst 52-110 record. Despite his longball power, Mountcastle accumulated a surprisingly low
0.9 WAR, a mark that was brought down by playing less demanding
positions and producing poor defensive numbers in his limited
appearances in left field. In addition, the huge disparity in his home
and road splits took some of the bite out of his power numbers as 22 of
his 33 home runs came at hitter-friendly Camden Yards where his .871 OPS
was well above the .713 mark he attained on the road. When park
adjusted, Mountcastle’s impressive .796 OPS translated to a less
illustrious 112 OPS+. Moreover, strikeouts and plate discipline were
constant struggles for the slugger as he whiffed 161 times while taking
just 41 walks. Although Mountcastle experienced his share of
difficulties at the plate during the 2021 season, on the strength of his
sensational hitting in June and August, he was able to paste his name
all over the AL rookie leaderboard. Mountcastle not only paced the
junior circuit rookies in home runs, but also finished runner-up in RBI,
runs scored, extra-base hits, slugging percentage, and total bases
while ranking in the top-five in several other categories.
Mountcastle
earned a pair of second place votes and four third place check marks on
the 2021 AL Rookie of the Year ballot. The power-hitter’s 10 points
placed him sixth in the election. Mountcastle received votes from each
of the Baltimore BBWAA chapter representatives, collecting a second
place tally from at-large writer Peter Schmuck and a third place check
mark from MLB.com’s Joe Trezza. His remaining second place vote came
from Boston BBWAA chapter representative Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena secured 22 of 30 first place votes and
amassed 124 points to win the AL Rookie of the Year Award. By gathering
support in both 2020 and 2021, Mountcastle joined Gregg Jefferies and
Ian Anderson as the only players to accrue votes in multiple seasons.
Ian Anderson
Originally
selected by the Atlanta Braves with the third overall pick of the 2016
Amateur Draft, Ian Anderson progressed through the minor leagues and
earned his first major league call up midway through the abbreviated
2020 season in late August. The young right-hander immediately
announced his presence with an impressive debut, holding the New York
Yankees to just one hit, a Luke Voit home run, across six innings of
work to outpitch veteran Gerrit Cole and pick up the win in Atlanta’s
5-1 victory. Anderson finished the season with a 3-2 record and a
phenomenal 1.95 ERA to help lead the Braves to the NL East division
title. Anderson rode his regular season momentum into the playoffs
where he won both Game Two of the NL Wild Card Series over the
Cincinnati Reds and Game Two of the NLDS versus the Miami Marlins. In
each of his playoff victories, Anderson did not allow a run. He then
started Games Two and Seven of the NLCS on the road against the Los
Angeles Dodgers but did not factor into the decision of either contest. Overall, Anderson went 2-0 with a minuscule 0.96 ERA in 18 2/3 innings
across four postseason starts. Despite only taking the mound for six
regular season starts, Anderson made the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year
ballot with a sole third place vote from Philadelphia BBWAA chapter
member Jack McCaffery of the Delaware County Daily Times. The
single point Anderson collected from McCaffery’s vote put him in a
three-way tie with Andres Gimenez and Sixto Sanchez for seventh place in
the election.
Anderson came into the 2021
season as one of the favorites to win the NL Rookie of the Year,
ranking as the number five prospect according to Baseball Prospectus and number eight for Baseball America. The young hurler got off to an excellent start, posting a 2.48 ERA in
April. He concluded the month by picking up his first two victories of
the year, throwing six and two-thirds scoreless innings on the road
against the Yankees and tossing seven frames of one-hit ball at home
versus the Chicago Cubs. On May 15, Anderson grabbed his third win of
the season with another outstanding road start, holding the Milwaukee
Brewers hitless for six innings before allowing a single and a double to
open the seventh. While Anderson was able to display flashes of
brilliance, he also struggled with consistency, owning a 5-5 record with
a 3.56 ERA when he went on the injured list after experiencing shoulder
soreness during a July 11 start against the Marlins. The right-hander
returned to the mound on August 29 and pitched five and two-thirds
scoreless innings to earn the win at home against the first place San
Francisco Giants. Anderson’s struggles resurfaced in early September
but he finished the regular season strong with a pair of crucial
victories in his final two outings to help the Braves hold off the
Philadelphia Phillies and win their fourth straight NL East division
title. In his penultimate start, Anderson pitched seven innings and
gave up just one run on the road versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. Anderson capped off his regular season by holding off the Phillies to a
pair of runs across six frames to clinch the division crown in front of
the Braves fans at Truist Park.
Anderson
finished his official rookie campaign with a 9-5 record and a 3.58 ERA
in 24 starts while averaging just under a strikeout per inning. The
opening outs were often the hardest for Anderson to get as he compiled
an ugly 6.38 ERA in the first inning compared to an impressive 2.93 mark
thereafter. Anderson’s overall 3.58 ERA was second-lowest among NL
rookies with more than 75 innings pitched. Anderson’s nine victories
tied Reds pitcher Vladimir Gutiérrez for the NL rookie lead. The young
right-hander also ranked among the NL rookie top-five in several other
categories including strikeouts, innings pitched, and WHIP. His 2.6 WAR
trailed only Marlins hurler Trevor Rogers among NL rookie pitchers and
slotted fifth overall for NL rookies. For the second year in a row,
Anderson carried the momentum of a strong regular season into the
playoffs, throwing five scoreless frames at home against the NL Central
champion Brewers to earn the victory in Game Three of the NLDS. Atlanta
once again faced the Dodgers in the NLCS with Anderson making a pair of
starts at Truist Park. The rookie hurler took the hill for Game Two
and the pennant-clinching Game Six but did not factor into the decision
of either contest. Anderson’s next start came in Game Three of the
World Series against the Houston Astros. With the series even at one
game apiece and moving back to Truist Park, Anderson pitched
brilliantly, throwing five no-hit innings to earn the victory and swing
the momentum back in favor of the Braves who ultimately captured the
World Series championship in six games. Had Houston been able to force a
decisive seventh game, it is likely Anderson would have been called
upon to make the start. The 23-year-old further cemented his status as
an excellent playoff pitcher, posting a 1.59 ERA across 17 innings
during the 2021 postseason. Anderson’s crucial NLDS and World Series
victories improved his playoff record to 4-0. Moreover, with a
magnificent 1.26 ERA from his combined 2020 and 2021 playoff
appearances, Anderson is one of just four pitchers to produce a sub-1.50
ERA through his first eight career postseason starts.
Anderson’s
solid campaign secured him a trio of third place tallies on the 2021 NL
Rookie of the Year ballot. The young righty’s three points gave him a
fifth place finish in the election. Since award ballots are submitted
prior to the start of the postseason, Anderson’s role in the Braves
championship run was not factored into the election. Two of Anderson’s
votes came from Atlanta’s BBWAA chapter representatives, Charles Odum
of The Associated Press and MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, while the other check mark came from The New York Post’s Joel
Sherman who represented the Milwaukee BBWAA chapter. Reds second
baseman Jonathan India picked up 29 of 30 first place votes and
accumulated 148 points to win the NL Rookie of the Year Award. By
accruing votes in both 2020 and 2021, Anderson joined Gregg Jefferies
and Ryan Mountcastle as the only players to draw Rookie of the Year
support in two separate seasons.
Ke’Bryan Hayes
The
Pittsburgh Pirates selected Ke’Bryan Hayes in the first round of the
2015 Amateur Draft with the thirty-second overall pick which the club
had received as compensation for losing Russell Martin to free agency. Hayes was selected in the same draft as fellow Rookie of the Year
candidate Mountcastle, with the Pirates calling his name four picks
ahead of the O’s slugger. Hayes is the son of former major leaguer
Charlie Hayes who shared the 1989 NL Rookie of the Year ballot with
Gregg Jefferies and finished tied with Andy Benes for fifth in the
election after garnering a single second place vote. The younger Hayes
proved to be a stalwart on defense, winning the minor league equivalent
of the Gold Glove Award in 2017, 2018, and 2019, thus becoming the first
player since Ramón Conde in 1961 to win the honor in three consecutive
seasons. However, when Hayes earned his call up to Pittsburgh in the
latter half the 2020 campaign, the slick-gloved rookie made his mark by
standing out on offense. In his major league debut against the Chicago
Cubs on September 1, Hayes hit a solo home run and stroked an RBI
double. He continued swinging a hot bat for the remainder of the
season, hitting safely in 20 of the 24 games he appeared in. During
Pittsburgh’s penultimate game of the year, Hayes went 5 for 5, scoring
three runs and hitting a trio of doubles to help the club to an 8-0
victory against the Cleveland Indians. By the end of the campaign, he
had raised his average to an incredible .376 with a .442 OBP, 1.124 OPS,
and 201 OPS+. Hayes capped the season by being named NL Rookie of the
Month for September. In the 2020 Rookie of the Year election, Hayes was
the only candidate among Anderson, Mountcastle, and Sanchez to pick up
more than a single third place vote as he collected a second place tally
from Los Angeles BBWAA chapter member Christina Kahrl of ESPN.com along
with a pair of third place check marks from the two Pittsburgh-based
voters, Will Graves of the Associated Press and Dejan Kovacevic
of DKPittsburghSports.com. The three votes gave Hayes five points and a
sixth place finish in the election.
After
going on an offensive tear during the final month of 2020, Hayes entered
2021 as one of the favorites to win top NL rookie honors and was
classified as the number seven prospect by Baseball Prospectus and number fifteen by Baseball America. Hayes kicked off his 2021 campaign by taking Cubs hurler Kyle
Hendricks deep in his first plate appearance on Opening Day. Unfortunately, during Pittsburgh’s second game of the season, he
injured his left wrist and departed the contest early. As a result, the
second generation slugger went on the injured list and missed two
months of the season. Hayes returned to the field on June 3 and hit
safely in each of his first ten games back from injury. The next few
weeks were highlighted by a series of multi-hit games in both late June
and early July as Hayes entered the All-Star Break with a solid .787
OPS. However, Hayes slumped at the plate during the second half,
posting just a .632 OPS. His season came to a premature end on
September 29 when he was placed back on the IL with soreness in his left
wrist. With Pittsburgh sitting last in the NL Central and Hayes
experiencing pain in a different part of his wrist than he had in April,
the club decided to shut the third baseman down rather than risk
further injury. Hayes’ wrist had periodically hampered him following
his first stint on the IL and undoubtedly played a role in his struggles
at the plate.
Injuries limited Hayes’ official
rookie campaign to 96 games and he finished the year with a .689 OPS
which translated to a below league average OPS+ of 87. Nevertheless,
Pittsburgh showed their confidence in the youngster, primarily batting
him out of the two-hole in the lineup before moving him to the leadoff
spot in September. Hayes hit 6 home runs and drove in 38 runs while
batting .257 with a .316 OBP. Hayes showcased his speed, going 9 for 10
in stolen base attempts. Although Hayes was unable to rekindle the
magic in his bat from 2020, he lived up to his reputation as an elite
defender, leading NL third basemen with 16 Defensive Runs Saved. In
addition, Hayes’ .988 fielding percentage and range factor per 9 innings
of 2.89 were both well above the respective .957 and 2.56 league
averages for third baseman. Hayes also ranked third among his NL hot
corner peers with 28 double plays turned. Largely due to his sterling
defense, Hayes produced 2.4 WAR, the fifth-highest total for NL rookie
position players and seventh overall among senior circuit rookies. However, Hayes’ slick glovework was not enough to secure the
24-year-old any votes on the 2021 NL Rookie of the Year ballot.
Sixto Sanchez
Miami
Marlins pitcher Sixto Sanchez also had the chance to join Gregg
Jefferies, Ryan Mountcastle, and Ian Anderson as the only players to
draw Rookie of the Year support in two different campaigns before a
shoulder injury caused the hurler to miss the entire 2021 regular
season. Originally signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2015 as an
amateur free agent, Sanchez was acquired by the Marlins four years later
as part of the J.T. Realmuto trade. Miami promoted Sanchez in late
August and he was able to deliver some big wins and help the club
capture one of the wild card spots in the special 2020 postseason
tournament. One of Sanchez’s key performances was a seven-inning
complete game victory in the first half of a September 13 doubleheader
that the Marlins swept over his former club, the Phillies. Sanchez
finished the 2020 regular season with a 3-2 record and 3.46 ERA. The
young right-hander made a pair of postseason starts, throwing five
scoreless innings but not factoring into the decision in Miami’s Game
Two victory against the Chicago Cubs in the NL Wild Card Series. His
next start was a rough outing versus the Atlanta Braves in Game Three of
the NLDS in which he gave up four runs across three innings and took
the loss. Sanchez’s solid regular season earned the pitcher a single
third place vote on the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year ballot from Arizona
BBWAA chapter member David Venn of MLB.com to put him in a three-way tie
with Ian Anderson and Andres Gimenez for seventh in the election.
Sanchez entered 2021 as the top prospect among Anderson, Hayes, and Mountcastle, ranking number four according to Baseball Prospectus and number six on Baseball America’s list. Unfortunately the Dominican-born hurler’s season seemed doomed from
the start as his arrival to the club’s spring training camp was first
delayed by a visa issue followed by a false positive on a COVID-19 test. Sanchez was then sidelined by shoulder soreness and in early July was
shut down for the remainder of the season after an MRI showed a small
tear in his right shoulder. On July 20, he underwent arthroscopic
surgery on the shoulder. Following the surgery, Marlins general manager
Kim Ng said the club is hopeful Sanchez will ready by Opening Day 2022. Technically, since Sanchez did not exceed his rookie limits in 2020 or
2021, he will be eligible for the 2022 NL Rookie of the Year.
When
Gregg Jefferies became the first player to garner Rookie of the Year
support in two separate seasons, he did so under much different
circumstances than Ryan Mountcastle and Ian Anderson. During Jefferies’
1988 call up, he made his first appearance of the year for the Mets on
August 28 and was with the club through the end of the campaign which
represented roughly one-fifth of the regular season. Since Jefferies
had spent fewer than 45 days on the Mets major league roster prior to
September 1 and the 115 career at bats he had accumulated up until that
point did not exceed the 130 at bat threshold, the young slugger’s
rookie status stayed intact for 1989. By contrast, Mountcastle and
Anderson made their 2020 debuts on August 21 and August 26,
respectively. Thus their time on their club’s roster represented more
than half of the barely two-month long campaign. Had Mountcastle and
Anderson appeared on their team’s roster for anything close to half of a
normal 162-game regular season, they would have easily blown past the
service time threshold and would not have had their rookie status intact
for 2021.
However, when Jefferies accomplished
the feat over the course of the 1988 and 1989 seasons, the
circumstances under which he was operating were also different from
prior eras. At the time the Rookie of the Year Award was established in
1947, only first place votes were counted and it was not until a tie
between Alfredo Griffin and John Castino in the 1979 AL vote that the
5-3-1 voting format of five points for first place, three points for
second, and a single point for third was adopted for the following
year’s election. In addition, the 50-inning, 130-at bat, and fewer than
45 days of pre-September 1 service time did not become the standard
thresholds until 1971. Thus, it is possible that other players may have
turned the trick before Jefferies had they been operating under the
same criteria. Regardless though, for three-plus decades Jefferies
stood as the only player to garner Rookie of the Year support in two
separate seasons and it took a unique set of circumstances for another
player to achieve this result.
----by John Tuberty
Follow me on Twitter @BloggerTubbs
Stat
links to main players mentioned: Ian Anderson, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Ryan Mountcastle, Sixto Sanchez, Jonathan India, Randy Arozarena, Wander Franco, Adolis García, Trevor Rogers, Nelson Cruz, Luke Voit, JT Realmuto, Cal Ripken Jr., Gregg Jefferies, Kyle Hendricks, Charlie Hayes, Ramón Conde
Sources: Baseball Reference,
BBWAA, CBS Sports, Baltimore Sun, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
ESPN, MiLB.com, September 2020 MLB.com article, May 1 MLB.com article, May 9 MLB.com article, July 2 MLB.com article, July 21 MLB.com article, September 29 article MLB.com article
Cards:
Gregg Jefferies 1988 Score, Ryan Mountcastle 2021 Bowman, Ian Anderson
2021 Bowman, Ryan Mountcastle 2021 Bowman-Rookie of the Year Favorites,
Ian Anderson 2021 Bowman-Rookie of the Year Favorites-Mojo Refractor,
Ke’Bryan Hayes 2021 Bowman-Rookie of the Year Favorites, Sixto Sanchez
2021 Bowman-Rookie of the Year Favorites
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