Duffy, a 24-year-old third baseman, finished second behind Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs, who received all 30 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Advertisement
Bryant, selected by the Cubs with the second pick in the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft, made a huge impact for his team, blasting 26 home runs, driving in 99 runs and logging a. 275 batting average. The only other player in major league history to attain those totals for homers, RBIs, doubles, runs and walks in his rookie season was Hall of Famer Ted Williams with the Boston Red Sox in 1939. Correa received 17 firsts and 13 seconds for 124 points to edge out Cleveland shortstop Francisco Lindor (LIHN’-dohr) and Minnesota designated hitter Miguel Sano (sah-NOH’). Like Correa, we are going to hear a lot from Bryant in the years to come.
As a result of his exploits, Correa joins Jeff Bagwell as the second Astro to be named Rookie of the Year (Bagwell won in 1991). He was still sent out to the minors for the first two weeks of the season, likely for financial reasons, and said Monday he “played with a little chip on my shoulder this year”.
Correa set the Astros’ rookie home run record in October and passed Lance Berkman, who set the previous mark back in 2000. Given his age, power and solid defense, he has “best player in the game” potential. Bryant’s 99 RBIs were the most by an NL rookie since Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals had 110 in 2006. With a group of rookies that also included Kyle Schwarber, Jorge Soler and Addison Russell, they got to the NL Championship Series before being swept by the NY Mets.
Bryant also has deceptive speed and base running ability swiping 13 bases last season, third most for NL rookies.
Advertisement
Bryant didn’t even have time to celebrate his award Monday before somebody asked him what he expected for an encore in 2016.
