Mariners center fielder Kyle Lewis and Brewers reliever Devin Williams wins the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year honors presented on Monday night by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Both were top picks by their teams in Drafts past.
The votes, which were compiled at the end of the regular season, were not particularly close. Lewis is the 12th unanimous selection in AL Rookie of the Year history and 25th overall, he received all 30 first-place votes in the AL for 150 points, with White Sox center fielder Luis Robert (83 points) finishing second and Astros right-hander Cristian Javier (11) third.
The right-handed Williams, who had already been named the Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year, was difficult to hit and easy to pick as the rare reliever to win this honor. With 14 first-place votes and 95 total vote points, he beat out Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm (nine first-place votes) and Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth (six first-place votes), who tied for second place with 74 points apiece.
In a season in which the Black Lives Matter movement and the cause of racial justice took on prominence in the sport, It was notable that Black players swept the award for the first time since 1984 (Dwight Gooden and Alvin Davis), three years before it was named for the barrier-breaking Robinson.
Kyle Lewis wins 2020 American League Rookie of the year award
Lewis, the unanimous American League honoree, suffered a devastating right knee injury just 30 games into his professional career. “I’m still learning, I’m still working every day, trying to write my story,” Lewis said. “That’s just what I say to the young guys, and anything can happen.”
“I give a lot of credit to the organization, the staff with the Seattle Mariners helping me mentally, and my family as well. When I was young, coming back from injury, I was trying to get everything back in one day and kind of rushing, pressing, working a little bit, speeding myself up. So I just give a lot of credit to the staff over with the Seattle Mariners for helping me out with that.”
The 25-year-old Lewis played in 58 games for the Mariners and became just the second rookie since 1969 — joining the A’s Mark McGwire in 1987 — to lead his team in batting average (.262), home runs (11), runs (37) and walks (34). His FanGraphs WAR (1.7), runs, walks and total bases (90) led all AL rookies, and he finished second in hits (54) and RBIs (28) and fourth in stolen bases (five).
With his dynamic play, including some highlight-reel homer robberies at the wall, Lewis gave Seattle a spark and became the first Mariners player to win the Rookie of the Year honor since Ichiro Suzuki in 2001.
Lewis tore his right ACL, as well as his medial and lateral meniscus, in a collision at home plate a little more than a month after the M’s took him with the 11th overall pick out of Mercer University in 2016. He reinjured the knee in ’17 and had lingering issues with it in ’18.
American League voting results:
| Player | Team | 1st Place Votes | 2nd Place Votes | 3rd Place Votes | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Lewis | SEA | 30 | – | – | 150 |
| Luis Robert | CWS | – | 27 | 2 | 83 |
| Cristian Javier | HOU | – | – | 11 | 11 |
| Sean Murphy | OAK | – | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| Willi Castro | DET | – | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| James Karinchak | CLE | – | – | 5 | 5 |
| Jared Walsh | LAA | – | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Ryan Mountcastle | BAL | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Brady Singer | KC | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Jesús Luzardo | OAK | – | – | 1 | 1 |
Devin Williams wins 2020 National League Rookie of the year award
Williams, the NL winner, had his path sidetracked by a major elbow injury and a switch from starting to relieving. But The 26-year-old became the first reliever to win Rookie of the Year in either league since the Braves’ Craig Kimbrel in 2011 and the first non-closer to win it since the Reds’ Scott Williamson in 1999.
While receiving his honors over a video call Williams said, “Representation is always important. You need someone that looks like you to show you it’s possible. Growing up, I had guys like Derek Jeter and other biracial or Black players. It kind of opened the door to that possibility for me. When you don’t see anyone who looks like you, it doesn’t feel like it’s attainable, in a way.”
Williams became the first pitcher without a start or a save to be named Rookie of the Year and just the third Brewer to win the Rookie of the Year award, joining Pat Listach in 1992 (when the Brewers were in the AL) and Ryan Braun in 2007.
The Brewers already had a bona fide beast in their bullpen in the form of Josh Hader, and Williams, who had gotten his feet wet near the end of the 2019 season, quickly evolved to make their back-end arrangement all the more menacing. Williams struck out a record 53 percent of the 100 batters he faced. He had a microscopic 0.33 ERA and .090 (8-for-89) opponent average in 27 innings across 22 appearances. The only earned run he allowed all season came on July 27, in his second appearance.
Taken at No. 54 overall in the 2013 Draft, Williams began a slow ascent to the bigs that was stalled by Tommy John surgery in 2017. He didn’t convert to full-time relief work until 2019. But the key to his emergence was the command of what is described as a changeup but is really a pitch all its own — an 84.1-mph offering that the 6-foot-2 Williams manipulated with wrist pronation, causing left-to-right, devastating downward movement. Baffled batters went just 2-for-62 with 41 strikeouts in at-bats that ended with that mesmerizing pitch.
National League Voting results:
| Player | Team | 1st Place Votes | 2nd Place Votes | 3rd Place Votes | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devin Williams | MIL | 14 | 6 | 7 | 95 |
| Alec Bohm | PHI | 9 | 8 | 5 | 74 |
| Jake Cronenworth | SD | 6 | 12 | 8 | 74 |
| Tony Gonsolin | LAD | 1 | 1 | 3 | 11 |
| Dustin May | LAD | – | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Ke’Bryan Hayes | PIT | – | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Andrés Giménez | NYM | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Sixto Sánchez | MIA | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Ian Anderson | ATL | – | – | 1 | 1 |
