Yankees: 3 reasons why Miguel Andujar, not Shohei Ohtani, should win AL ROY

So far, Yankees third baseman Miguel Andujar has had a tremendous rookie season. Some analysts believe Angels pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani deserves the American League Rookie of the Year award. Here are three reasons why Andujar, and NOT Ohtani, deserves the honor.

Miguel Andujar started his 2018 season in the minors, but now he bats in the heart of the AL Wild Card-leading New York Yankees lineup. He earned his promotions by remaining consistent and healthy all year long. Now MLB fans are beginning to recognize him as a household name. Other fans and analysts like me believe either him or Gleyber Torres will win the AL Rookie of the Year, but there’s another name in the hat.

Unfortunately, Andujar’s breakout campaign occurred during a year where Japanese baseball “phenom” Shohei Ohtani arrived in the MLB. Over the last couple of years, sports reporters have anointed Ohtani as the greatest thing since sliced bread. So one could think the AL Rookie of the Year award was practically his before he stepped on an MLB field.

The coverage of the Ohtani sweepstakes last year made the then 23-year-old Japanese ballplayer appear to be a rock star. Major League Baseball’s love for nostalgia also elevated Ohtani to superstardom status as he was commonly referred to as “The Babe Ruth of Japan.”

Expectations were high for Ohtani because of his outstanding success as a pitcher and a hitter in Japan’s professional baseball league. However, one can argue that his injury-plagued season and his inability to play every day for the Los Angeles Angels should prevent Ohtani from winning the AL ROY.

As for Miguel Andujar, entering 2018, he had to earn his spot on the Yankees roster. Brandon Drury was expected to be the Yankees starting third baseman in 2018. But injuries forced Drury out, and Andujar in. Since then, Miggy has out hit every Yankees player, with a .298 batting average.

Despite his over-achieving performance, some of the sports media industry’s most prominent contributors will not stop drinking the Ohtani Kool-Aid. Let’s take Fancred Sportswriter and MLB Insider Jon Heyman for example:

A day later, Heyman tweeted out that he found a few who agree with him, “but not many.” Sports Illustrated staff writer Emma Baccellieri also sided with Heyman’s opinion. In her article, she explained why she believes that no matter what the future holds for Ohtani’s injured arm, he should still win the honor.

I respectfully disagree with these journalists, and I’ve provided three reasons why Miguel Andujar should win the AL ROY award.

Andujar has out-hit the Yankees historic Opening Day lineup

The 2018 New York Yankees were expected, by some, to break the 1997 Seattle Mariners single-season team home run record (264). After leading the majors with 241 home runs in 2017, the Yankees added the 2017 NL MVP and NL home run king, Giancarlo Stanton.

The surprising addition of Stanton made the Yankees lineup appear to be unstoppable. Their rookie phenom Aaron Judge hit 52 home runs, and now they added Stanton’s 59 dingers. Judge, Stanton, and the mighty Gary Sanchez were the three-headed monster destined to give opposing pitchers nightmares.

Along with those three goliaths, veterans Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, and Brett Gardner all emerged as 20-plus home run power threats in 2017. A healthy Greg Bird was also supposed to provide some serious pop from the right side of the plate, and Tyler Austin was supposed to platoon with Bird against lefty-pitchers because of his powerful swing against southpaws.

Besides Stanton, another new addition to the Yankees lineup was former Silver Slugger recipient, infielder Neil Walker. Lastly, off-season acquisition third baseman Brandon Drury was reported to be on the Yankees radar for a while, and some of their analysts thought he had the potential to belt 30 home runs someday.

Here was the official starting lineup for the New York Yankees back on March 28:

1. Brett Gardner, LF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Giancarlo Stanton, DH
4. Gary Sanchez, C
5. Aaron Hicks, CF
6. Didi Gregorius, SS
7. Brandon Drury, 3B
8. Neil Walker, 2B
9. Tyler Austin, 1B

Luis Severino, RHP

Fast forward five and half months later, and we see that Miguel Andujar is batting in the heart of the Yankees lineup every day.

He’s batting .292 with RISP, which is second to fellow rookie Gleyber Torres (.295) on the team. He also leads the team in doubles (40) and batting average (.298). He’s second in RBI’s (79) behind Giancarlo Stanton (84), but he’s ahead of Stanton’s .504 slugging percentage with a .521 clip, and only trails behind the injured Aaron Judge (.548).

Unlike the Angels’ expectations for Shohei Ohtani to be a huge part of their offense in 2018, Andujar was not expected to be one of the leading hitters for the Yankees, but he has been. And unlike Ohtani, Andujar’s valuable bat is in their lineup every day.

Andujar’s bat is fantastic, but some analysts believe his poor fielding will cost him the Rookie of the Year. Here’s why that’s hogwash.

Andujar’s poor fielding performance hasn’t been as costly to the Yankees as you may think

Okay, we all know Miguel Andujar is not a gold glove fielder. But let me remind you, he’s 23 years old and he’s still a rookie. Most rookies go through struggles in the field, so this is nothing new. On the season, Andujar has an unacceptable 15 errors, so I understand the frustration.

On the bright side, the Yankees have a winning record of 7-6 when Andujar commits an error. Now let’s see how many of these games were crucially impacted by an Andujar error:

• 4/10 L BOS 14-1: Miguel Andujar committed a two-out error in the sixth inning when his team was already down 7-1 against the Red Sox. One run would score on that play. Six more runs would score that inning. It was a blow out before the error occurred. NOT CRUCIAL
• 7/6 L TOR 6-2: Andujar committed an error in a 5-1 game on a ground ball. No runs scored that inning, so no damage done by Andujar. NOT CRUCIAL 
• 7/10 L BAL 6-5: Andujar committed a throwing error in a 2-0 game with two outs, but no runs went on to score. NOT CRUCIAL 
• 8/5 L BOS 5-4: Andujar committed two errors in the game. The first one occurred in the fifth inning, but it led to no runs scoring. The second one happened in the bottom of the ninth when the Yankees were leading 4-3 with two outs. It was a short throw to Greg Bird (who should have caught the ball), and it led to the Red Sox tieing the game. The Red Sox would win the next inning. CRUCIAL 
• 8/16 L TB 3-1: With no out, and the Yankees down 2-0, Andujar mad a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt. Another run would later score. Because this game was within reach, I would consider this CRUCIAL
• 9/3 L OAK 6-3: With the Yankees down 2-1 in the bottom of the first, Andujar mad a two-out error that led to another run-scoring. Since this occurred while the game was within reach and early on, I would consider it CRUCIAL.

While Andujar has committed 15 errors on the year, only three of them have occurred in a crucial situation that aided to a Yankees loss. Only one of them really cost them a game.

As for Shohei Ohtani, he doesn’t play the field. So he can’t contribute to registering outs in games where is also hitting. But he’s started an incredible (sarcasm intended) ten games, so that should negate the fact that he doesn’t play the field, right? Absolutely not!