For the first time since Craig Kimbrel took home the honors with Atlanta in 2010, a relief pitcher has been named Rookie of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Right-handed reliever Devin Williams of the Milwaukee Brewers beat out Phillies’ third baseman Alec Bohm and Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth to win the 2020 National League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award (full voting results here).
New York Mets shortstop Andres Gimenez (.263/.333/.398 in 2020) received one third-place vote.
Williams, 26, was a second-round pick (54th overall; Hazelwood West HS, Hazelwood, Missouri) of the Brewers in 2013. After putting up a pedestrian 3.95 ERA over 13 appearances for Milwaukee in 2019 (14 strikeouts, six walks), the big righty broke out in 2020.
Over 22 appearances this season, Williams allowed just one earned run (0.33 ERA), struck out 53, and walked nine in 27 innings. His vaunted Airbender changeup (video via @PitchingNinja) held opposing hitters to a .032 batting average with a 61.1% whiff rate.
In the American League, Seattle Mariners center fielder Kyle Lewis won convincingly (unanimously, in fact; full voting results here) over White Sox center fielder Luis Robert and Astros right-hander Cristian Javier for the AL Rookie of the Year honors.
Lewis, 25, becomes the first M’s rookie to win the award since Kazuhiro Sasaki and Ichiro Suzuki took home the hardware in 2000 and 2001, respectively.
Over 242 plate appearances this season, the former first-round pick (2016, 11th overall; Mercer University, GA) hit .262/.364/.437 with 126 wRC+ and 1.7 wins above replacement (FanGraphs), which was tied for the MLB lead among rookies (Ke’Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh).
Lewis’ 11 home runs were tied for the rookie lead with Luis Robert, who finished second and his 37 runs scored were tops among the same group.
AL and NL Manager of the Year Award winners will be announced Tuesday on MLB Network at 6 PM EST.
