The 2023 major league baseball season ended recently, meaning the MLB award season is upcoming (or has already started, for some awards). This includes the Rookie of the Year, the award given to the best rookie, defined as being the player's first year. (Some players have technically played some games in a previous season, or seasons, but they can't have gone over an official amount of at bats, innings, or time on the roster. Long story short, a player's rookie year is their first one wherein they play a full season, or at least most of one.) Of the major awards, Rookie of the Year seems to lend itself to the most "flashes in the pan," or players who have a great rookie year, but then underperform for the rest of their careers. Or sometimes they don't even play that many more years. There are occasionally cases like this for Cy Young or MVP award winners, but not usually as often. Anyway, that's what I'd like to cover today--the guys who won the Rookie of the Year but then didn't do much of anything else. Also, in some seasons the Rookie of the Year wasn't that great--either they were kind of overrated, or else maybe no other rookies that year were that special, either. So we're going to try to come up with a list of these worsts. I'm going to use the stat WAR (wins above replacement) to settle this. (I realize some stat enthusiasts prefer ones like VORP, EqA, Win Shares, or possibly others. I'm using WAR because it seems fairly extensive, it's more widely used, is more familiar to me, and finally, is easier to find, since it's on the Baseball Reference website. And therefore I'm using Baseball Reference's version of WAR, and not Baseball Prospectus', or any others.) Finally, I'm not trying to be mean here. I realize all these players were excellent players, and had accomplished careers. I'm just trying to figure out who were the worst ones in the MLB, for this category. So let the arguments begin, I guess. Lastly, this award was first given out in 1947. For the first two years there was only one Rookie of the Year for MLB, but starting in 1949 there was one for each league. I'll be abbreviating "Rookie of the Year" as "ROTY" frequently in this post, for obvious typing reasons.
Lowest WAR for a Rookie of the Year:
1) 0.0 Ken Hubbs, second baseman, Chicago Cubs, 1962.
2) 0.4 Steve Howe, pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1980.
2) 0.4 Eric Karros, first baseman, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1992.
4) 0.5 Chris Chambliss, first baseman, Cleveland Indians, 1971.
5) 0.8 Albie Pearson, outfielder, Washington Senators, 1958.
6) 1.1 Todd Hollandsworth, outfielder, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1996.
6) 1.1 Chris Coghlan, outfielder, Florida Marlins, 2009.
8) 1.2 Billy Williams, outfielder, Chicago Cubs, 1961.
9) 1.3 Tommy Helms, third baseman/second baseman, Cincinnati Reds, 1966.
9) 1.3 Kazuhiro Sasaki, pitcher, Seattle Mariners, 2000.
9) 1.3* Devin Williams, pitcher, Milwaukee Brewers, 2020 (a)
(a) Recall that the COVID-affected 2020 season was only 60 games, instead of the usual 162, so Williams WAR may well have been higher (or possibly lower) in a regular length season.
Lowest Career WAR for a Rookie of the Year winner:
1) 1.0 Angel Berroa, shortstop, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers, etc., in 9 year career with his ROTY award coming in 2003.
2) 1.1 Chris Coghlan, outfielder/infielder, Florida Marlins, Chicago Cubs, etc., in a 9 year career with his ROTY award in 2009.
3) 1.2 Ken Hubbs, second baseman, Chicago Cubs, 3 year career, ROTY in 1962. (a).
3) 1.2 Butch Metzger, pitcher, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, etc., 5 year career, ROTY in 1976.
5) 1.5 Joe Charboneau, outfielder, Cleveland Indians, 3 year career, ROTY in 1980.
6) 1.9 Kyle Lewis, outfielder, Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks, active player as of 2023, 5 year career so far, ROTY in 2020. (b).
7) 2.5 Bob Hamelin, first baseman, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, etc., 6 year career, ROTY in 1994.
8) 3.0 Alfredo Griffin, shortstop, Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, etc., 18 year career, ROTY in 1979. (Also part of 3 World Series winners.)
9) 3.4 Walt Dropo, first basemans, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, etc., 13 year career, ROTY in 1950.
10) 3.7 Harry Byrd, pitcher, Philadelphia Athletics, New York Yankees, etc., 7 year career, ROTY in 1952.
10) 3.7 Jerome Walton, outfielder, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, etc. 10 year career, ROTY in 1989.
10) 3.7 Kazuhiro Sasaki, pitcher, Seattle Mariners, 4 year career, ROTY in 2000. (c).
Notes:
(a) Hubbs' career was so short because he tragically died in a plane crash at the age of 22.
(b) Since Lewis is active, he might accrue more WAR and leave this list. Although his last few seasons have been poor, so he might actually lose more WAR and go down a few places, too.
(c) Sasaki played many years in the Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball league (NPB), so he didn't get to the MLB until he was 32.
Okay, let's get to the positive. Here's a list of the 19 ROTY who had fine careers, and were eventually elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, followed by some possible candidates for later elections. Again, I'll order these in career lifetime WAR.
1) 156.2 Willie Mays, outfielder with the New York/San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. 22 year career, ROTY in 1951.
2) 109.9 Tom Seaver, pitcher with the New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, etc. 20 year career, ROTY in 1967.
3) 107.3 Frank Robinson, outfielder/first baseman with the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, etc. 21 year career, ROTY in 1956.
4) 95.9 Cal Ripken, Jr., shortstop/third baseman with the Baltimore Orioles. 21 year career, ROTY in 1982.
5) 81.2 Rod Carew, first baseman/second baseman with the Minnesota Twins and California Angels. 19 year career, ROTY in 1967.
6) 79.9 Jeff Bagwell, first baseman with the Houston Astros. 15 year career, ROTY in 1991.
7) 75.1 Johnny Bench, catcher/first baseman/third baseman, Cincinnati Reds. 17 year career, ROTY in 1968.
8) 71.3 Derek Jeter, shortstop with the New York Yankees. 20 year career, ROTY in 1996.
9) 70.1 Scott Rolen, third baseman with the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, etc. 17 year career, ROTY in 1997.
10) 68.6 Eddie Murray, first baseman with the Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers, etc. 21 year career, ROTY in 1977.
11) 68.4 Carlton Fisk, catcher with the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox. 24 year career, ROTY in 1972.
12) 64.8 Andre Dawson, outfielder with the Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, etc. 21 year career, ROTY in 1977.
13) 64.5 Willie McCovey, first baseman/outfielder with the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, etc. 22 year career, ROTY in 1959.
14) 63.6 Billy Williams, outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. 18 year career, ROTY in 1961.
15) 61.8* Jackie Robinson, infielder/outfielder with the Brooklyn Dodgers. 10 year career, ROTY in 1947. (a)
16) 59.5 Mike Piazza, catcher/first baseman with the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, etc. 16 year career, ROTY in 1993.
17) 55/8 :Luis Aparacio, shortstop with the Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, etc. 18 year career, ROTY in 1956.
18) 50.1 Orlando Cepeda, first baseman/outfielder with the San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, etc. 17 year career, ROTY in 1958.
19) 43.0 Tony Oliva, outfielder with the Minnesota Twins. 15 year career, ROTY in 1964.
(a) If Jackie Robinson had been allowed to play in MLB earlier, he would have clearly played more seasons, and accumulated a higher lifetime WAR. As it was, he broke the color ban in his late 20's.
Definite future Hall of Famers who also won Rookie of the Year. As in, barring an arrest or positive PED test or something like that, these guys will definitely be elected, probably shortly after the 5 year minimum.
1) 101.5 Albert Pujols, first baseman, outfielder, third baseman, with the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angles Angels, etc. 22 seasons, ROTY in 2001.
2) 85.2* Mike Trout, outfielder, Los Angeles Angels. Active player, 13 seasons as of 2023, ROTY in 2012.
3) 81.0* Justin Verlander, pitcher, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, etc.. Active, 18 seasons as of 2023, ROTY in 2006.
These next players have a strong case for Hall of Fame election, but not as strong as the previous 3 guys:
1) 75.1 Lou Whitaker, second baseman with the Detroit Tigers. 19 seasons, ROTY in 1978.
2) 70.1 Carlos Beltran, outfielder with the Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, etc. 20 seasons, ROTY in 1999.
3) 60.0* Ichiro Suzuki, outfielder with the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, etc. 19 seasons, ROTY in 2001. (a).
4) 58.7 Dick Allen, first baseman/third baseman/outfielder with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox, etc. 15 seasons, ROTY in 1964.
(a) Suzuki played in the NPB in Japan until his late 20's, so bear that in mind while observing his career WAR.
And now the depressing pair. These last Rookie of the Year winners would have been surefire Hall of Famers, but they broke a couple of serious rules. They still might be elected someday, but it's unclear.
1) 79.6 Pete Rose, outfielder/first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, with the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, etc. 24 seasons, ROTY in 1963. Barred from HOF due to gambling on baseball games.
2) 62.2 Mark McGwire, first baseman with the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. 16 seasons, ROTY in 1987. Not elected so far because of obvious, and finally admitted usage of PEDs.
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