Houston Astros’ Carlos Correa wins AL Rookie of the Year

Correa hit. 279 with 22 doubles, 22 home runs, 68 RBI and 14 stolen bases in only 99 games for Houston.

Bryant was named the National League Rookie of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Monday.

San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Duffy finished second in the voting with Pittsburgh Pirates’ infielder Jung Ho Kang, despite a knee injury which prematurely ended his season, coming in third.

Correa also won the Sporting News AL Rookie of the Year award on October 26, which is voted on by 176 players in the American League, but the BBWAA award is considered the most prestigious of the two. In a draft class headlined by pitcher Mark Appel (who would eventually go back to school for his senior year and become an Astro the following season) and outfielder Byron Buxton, Luhnow executed the somewhat calculated risk to draft 17 year old Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa.

The first-overall pick in the 2012 Major League Baseball Draft was called up by the Astros in the middle June. Bryant becomes the first Cubs player to win the award unanimously.

Lindor finished 2015 with a.313/.353/.482 batting line, including 12 home runs; good for a wRC+ of 128. That leaves us with a rather handy apples-to-apples comparison of two young shortstops who played in the same number of games and had almost the same number of at-bats (Lindor came to the plate six more times than Correa, a difference of just 1.4%).

In addition to starting 136 games at third, Bryant also started five games in right field, four in left, one in center and one at first base.

Bryant’s home run and RBI totals are both records for Cubs rookies, and they also ranked him among the Major League leaders in both categories this season. Correa narrowly edged out fellow shortstop Francisco Lindor to win the award.

“At times I kind of got labeled like I really didn’t care about playing just because I was so relaxed up there”, the Cubs’ freshman phenom said.

In addition to the Rookie of the Year nomination, Duffy was a Gold Glove finalist at third base in the National League.