Soroka finishes 2nd in NL ROY vote
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ATLANTA -- Michael Soroka produced one of the finest seasons of any rookie pitcher within the past 50 years. But the Braves right-hander’s performance was not strong enough to trump the historic campaign produced by Mets slugger Pete Alonso.
Alonso was named the National League Rookie of the Year Award winner on Monday night. Soroka finished second ahead of Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. in balloting conducted among members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Alonso, who set an MLB rookie record with 53 home runs, received 29 of the 30 first-place votes. Soroka received the only other first-place vote and was included on all but two of the cast ballots. The Braves' hurler received 25 second-place votes and two third-place votes.
“Let’s keep competing together and let’s have some awesome careers down the road,” Alonso said to Soroka and Tatis as he spoke on MLB Network moments after being announced this year’s winner.
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Soroka led all NL rookie pitchers with a 4.0 fWAR (Fangraphs’ WAR Model). Alonso led all NL rookies with a 4.8 fWAR and Tatis ranked third with a 3.6 mark.
Providing a glimpse of his tremendous potential, Soroka ranked fifth in the Majors in ERA (2.68) and fourth in Adjusted ERA+ (169), which takes a player's ERA and normalizes it across the entire league by accounting for external factors like ballparks and opponents.
Dwight Gooden (229 in 1985), Vida Blue (183 in 1971) and Jose Fernandez (176 in 2013) are the only other pitchers of the Live Ball era to produce a ERA+ of 165 or better while 21 years old or younger.
Looking just at rookie pitchers who have made at least 25 starts in a season dating back to 1969, when they lowered the mound, Soroka’s ERA+ was trumped only by that mark Fernandez produced when he was named the 2013 NL Rookie of the Year.
“You could go down the list in the NL and the [American League] and pick guys that would have won in other given years,” Soroka said. “It’s incredible and I think it just shows where are game is going.”