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Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa has won the 2015 American League Rookie of the Year award. Correa becomes the first Astro to win the award given out by the Baseball Writer’s Association of America since Jeff Bagwell in 1991. Correa beat out Francisco Lindor, shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, by four votes, winning 17-13. see Alyson Footer’s Tweet below.
Close, close close. Correa gets 17 first place votes, Lindor 13. Correa wins it. And he's sporting a sweet hat, of course. #ALROY
— Alyson Footer (@alysonfooter) November 16, 2015
Correa also won the Sporting News AL Rookie of the Year award on Oct. 26, which is voted on by 176 players in the American League, but the BBWAA award is considered the most prestigious of the two.
Correa, who turned 21 on Sept. 22, debuted on June 8 and immediately made an impact with Houston. In 22 June games, Correa hit .287/.309/.543 with five home runs, nine doubles and 15 RBIs en route to the AL Rookie of the Month award.
Correa ended the season batting .279/.345/.512 with 22 home runs, 22 doubles, and 68 RBIs in 99 games. Over 162 games, those numbers would project 36 home runs, 36 doubles, and 111 RBIs.
It's Rookie of the Year day! We're sharing our fave @TeamCJCorrea moments, starting with his first MLB HR #CorreaROY pic.twitter.com/QaI98MaAqI
— Houston Astros (@astros) November 16, 2015
Lindor, 8th overall pick of the 2011 MLB Draft, debuted just six days after Correa and hit .313/.353/.482 with 12 home runs, 22 doubles, and 51 RBIs in 99 games. Lindor’s best month of the season came in August when he hit .370/.413/.500. Over those 28 games, he collected 40 hits and won the AL Rookie of the Month award.
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Correa was great defensively as well, but it’s also the area where Lindor held an advantage over Correa this season. While Correa had zero defensive runs saved and 13 errors (.967 Fld%), Lindor had ten defensive runs saved on the season and ten errors (.974 Fld%).
Because of the gap defensively, Lindor actually finished with a higher WAR (4.6) than Correa (4.1). Lindor’s 1.7 defensive WAR put him at 10th in the American League.
The nod to Correa likely came from his power as well as batting third in the line-up on a playoff team. Correa also came through with hits when the team needed them most. According to Baseball Reference, with two outs and RISP, Correa hit .395/.477/.763 in 44 plate appearances with four home runs and 19 RBIs. In the postseason, Correa hit .292 in six games, including a two home run, four RBI performance in Game 4 of the ALDS.
The sky is the limit for Correa from here on out, and the young phenom is on his way to being one of the best players in all of baseball. Correa is poised on and off the field and showed a maturity beyond his years this season. By the end of the 2015 season, he was not only a great rookie shortstop, but he was also already one of the best shortstops in all of baseball.
Looking ahead, the dynamic duo up the middle for the Houston Astros with a 10-inch height differential between the two will be one of if not the best in baseball for the foreseeable future.
Next: Scott Feldman 2015 Season Recap
Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel (Cy Young) and manager A.J. Hinch (Manager of the Year) are also up for BBWAA awards. Managers of the Year will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday, and the Cy Young awards will be announced on Wednesday.