Advertisement

Did Rays Joey Wendle get a bad deal in ROY voting?

 
Published Nov. 6, 2018|Updated Nov. 6, 2018

Did Rays INF Joey Wendle get some kind of a raw deal in voting for the AL Rookie of the Year?

Teammate Blake Snell, a candidate for the AL Cy Young Award, certainly felt so, and said so after Wendle didn't make the three-man final field of Angels DH/RHP Shohei Ohtani and a pair of Yankees infielders, Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres.

"Of course Joey deserved it," Snell said. "If Joey played for the Yankees, do you think Joey would have been on there? Joey would have been on ESPN every day. The man is special. For him not to be on there, I'm sad. He put together a case that it needs to be up there. It can't go unnoticed. For it to be that way, it's only going to fuel him. And that's what's exciting. It's really going to fuel him to be even better next year, which I know he will be.

"I just think it's the market. I think that has something to do with it. He's not being seen as much as all these other guys. I feel bad for Joey because I thought he was going to win it. So for him to not be in it, it's upsetting."

Wendle had a case built on his overall performance.

He led AL rookies with a  4.3 WAR rating per baseball-reference.com and .300 average, and was second with a .354 on-base percentage, 33 doubles,  16 steals and a .989 fielding percentage at second base, while starting at three other positions.

Along the way, he became one of four rookies in baseball history, and two in the last 100 years, to combine a .300 average, 33 doubles and 16 steals while getting at-bats to qualify for a batting title while playing primarily in the middle infield. The other? Nomar Garciaparra in 1997 for Boston.

But with seven home runs, 61 RBIs and a .789 OPS in his 139 games, he was decidedly less productive  than any of the other three. (And by fangraphs.com's slightly different version of WAR, he finished with a lower WAR, 3.7, than Ohtani, 3.8.) Plus, Wendle is 28, having played parts of the two previous seasons while retaining his rookie status.

"It's frustrating simply because we got to see him firsthand," Rays manager Kevin Cash said, "and you watched how he impacted our club in such a positive way on offense and defense and the way he carried himself as just a pro."

Realistically, Wendle was not going to win, with Ohtani (.285, 22 HRs, 61 RBIs, .925 OPS in 104 games and 4-2, 3.31) and Andujar (.297, 27, 92, .855) the acknowledged top two candidates.

But the question is whether Wendle  belonged to be in the final three ahead of Torres, who hit .271 with 24 homers, 74 RBIs, and an .820  OPS in 123 games.

To his credit, and befitting his humble style, Wendle said via text message he wasn't too concerned with how it turned out.

"It was fun for me to even be in consideration for Rookie of the Year," Wendle said. "But I can't say I'm particularly disappointed that I was not a finalist. The three that are finalists all had great years and two of them were on a playoff team. All three would be very deserving.

"That being said I have never, nor would I now define the success of a season on an award. I had a lot of fun this season playing winning baseball on a team with a bunch of great guys. I'm really thankful for that."

The winner will be announced Nov. 12. For some reason, you get the feeling Wendle won't be watching.