Jacob deGrom and Travis d’Arnaud have been named to the Baseball America All-Rookie Team. Along with the Reds Billy Hamilton, they make up the only three National League players on the list.
Here’s how they profiled d’Arnaud:
The 25-year-old d’Arnaud lived up to offensive projections, though it took the backstop a floundering first half and return to Triple-A Las Vegas to figure things out. He hit .272/.319/.486 with 10 home runs in 69 games after returning from the minors on June 24, but now he faces questions about his long-term position after throwing out 19 percent of base-stealers, committing an NL-leading 12 passed balls and spending time on the concussion disabled list.
DeGrom, who was the ace of the All-Rookie pitching staff that included former Mets farmhand Collin McHugh and Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka, was profiled as follows:
The Mets fully expected to break a rookie starter (or two) into the rotation in 2014—they just expected that rookie to be Noah Syndergaard (or Rafael Montero). DeGrom zoomed past his Triple-A Las Vegas rotation-mates, however, to join the big league staff in mid-May, and he even bounced back from an August trip to the disabled list with a shoulder injury. The tall, lean, former college shortstop used a strong three-pitch mix to lead all rookie starters (min. 100 innings) with a 2.69 ERA, while inducing the lowest contact rate (83.6 percent) when batters swung at pitches in the strike zone.
With the other 12 spots on the team going to the American League, it’s clear that in Baseball America’s mind, either d’Arnaud, deGrom or Hamilton will take home top rookie honors in the National League. The rest of the All-Rookie Team is as follows:
- C – Travis d’Arnaud
- 1B – Jose Abreu
- 2B – Mookie Betts
- 3B – Nick Castellanos
- SS – Danny Santana
- OF – Billy Hamilton
- OF – Kevin Kiermaier
- OF – George Springer
- DH – Kennys Vargas
- SP – Jacob deGrom
- SP – Collin McHugh
- SP – Marcus Stroman
- SP – Masahiro Tanaka
- SP – Yordano Ventura
- RP – Dellin Betances
