FanSided

3 Yankees who got completely ripped off in recent awards races

By Adam Weinrib |
HOUSTON, TEXAS - JULY 09: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees stands on second base while Jose Altuve #27 of the Houston Astros looks on at Minute Maid Park on July 09, 2021 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TEXAS - JULY 09: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees stands on second base while Jose Altuve #27 of the Houston Astros looks on at Minute Maid Park on July 09, 2021 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
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Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

You think “Yankees bias” doesn’t exist, huh? Maybe not among the game’s GMs, who have a job to do, but it’s all too real in the writers’ community.

You know why? This may sound shocking, but many people do not like the New York Yankees, and when writing about the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Tigers or A’s, they see very little reason to hide that distaste on a daily basis.

And when it comes time to vote for the league’s award winners at the end of the year, why would they simply pack that bias away? They wouldn’t! They still hate us.

That’s how you get results that, on the surface, look like the writers actively tried to snub deserving Yankees in favor of rewarding “the little guy,” simply for doing exceptional baseball things in a city that is not New York. Problem is, if you do it year after year, the Yankees start to become the little guy.

You see this all the time in the MVP race. “Of course he was great. He’s a Yankee! They’re always great. So what about this Twin?” And so on, and so forth.

Are there real-world problems that MLB awards voting injustices ultimately pale in comparison to? Oh, you betcha! Don’t make that comparison on an empty stomach. They’ll be pale-ing all over the place.

But, as a Yankee fan, it can be quite frustrating to see Gerrit Cole and Robbie Ray as the top two objective favorites to take home the 2021 Cy Young and know, deep in your heart, that despite both men ending the season with disaster starts, Ray was totally going to get the honor. Why? Because he wasn’t expected to be great this year, and Cole was. Because he delivered a surprise, and Cole delivered the norm, even though Cole’s numbers all out-paced his.

And, most of all, because Cole’s a Yankee, Ray was a Jay, Jays are interesting, and Yankees are boring (even as New York’s World Series drought ticks 12 years and counting).

In our estimation, these three recent major awards races were much worse than Ray over Cole — and yes, there’s a twist in No. 2.

3 MLB Awards races where the Yankees got completely ripped off.

3. 2006 MVP Race, Derek Jeter vs. Justin Morneau

We wouldn’t be quite so angry about this one if “Jeter never won an MVP!” wasn’t so crucial to the haters’ case against his Hall of Fame candidacy.

Counterpoint: He should’ve! But the voters decided giving Justin Morneau one was more important than dropping one on Jeter’s resumé.

Jeter’s 2006 might’ve been his finest all-around season, and ended up being the closest he got to MVP honors; his second-place finish outpaced two third-place marks in 1998 and 2009. We’re also not sure how he finished sixth in the 1999 voting with a career-high 153 OPS+ and 8.0 WAR (more than any candidate but the deserved victor Pedro Martinez), beating the winner Pudge Rodriguez by 1.6. But, hey, Nomar finished seventh that year, and I guess that’s all that really matters.

In ’06, Jeter technically got out-WAR’d by Big Papi, who finished in third place behind him in the year-end tally (see, this is a fair and balanced article). It’s clear the voters ignored the DH’s 54 home runs, though, and boiled their decision down to Jeter and Morneau (Johan Santana, Carlos Guillen and Grady Sizemore had ’em both beat, but this isn’t the WAR Award).

  • Jeter: 14 homers, 97 RBI, 34 stolen bases, .343/.417/.483, .900 OPS, 5.6 WAR
  • Morneau: 34 homers, 130 RBI (ooh, big man), .321/.375/.559, .934 OPS, 4.3 WAR

And yet, the Twins slugger took it, 15 first-place votes to 12.

If home runs mattered so much, why not Papi? If team success mattered, why not Jeter? The Yankees edged the Twins out by a win, and both teams got bounced in the ALDS.

Hell, Morneau got out-WAR’d by two teammates with stronger cases in Santana and Joe Mauer, who also eclipsed Jeter.

This debate is tough to examine with an unbiased eye, since it was the most obvious case where Jeter should’ve come out on top. In the eyes of the voters, it came down to Jeet and a lesser candidate, and he didn’t prevail.

Of course, all sorts of people also could’ve snuck up behind him and snagged the award — but the voters saw it as a two-man race, and they picked the wrong guy.

Was Jeter penalized for having already played on more successful teams than the ’06 Yankees from 1996-2001? Did his consistent excellence feel old hat by then, even as his numbers peaked? We’ll never know why the narrative swung away from him, but he never did earn MVP honors.

Probably for the best, though. Jeter was never much of an “individual accolades” guy anyway.

New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina (Photo by MATT CAMPBELL/AFP via Getty Images)
New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina (Photo by MATT CAMPBELL/AFP via Getty Images) /

2. 2001 Cy Young Race, Mike Mussina vs. Roger Clemens

A little Yankee on Yankee crime here, folks!

Sure, the 2001 Cy Young race isn’t an example of “Yankees bias,” but the fact of the matter is the media defaulted to old-school statistics here right on the verge of the revolution, and crowned a multi-time champion while severely damaging another star’s Hall of Fame case.

It’s no exaggeration to say the vastly superior Mike Mussina losing the 2001 Cy Young to Roger Clemens set his Cooperstown candidacy back several years. We’re lucky he got in at all without the hardware.

Throughout his career, Mussina was tremendously unlucky, often stuck in the right place at the wrong time. He was a five-time All-Star, sure, but that total isn’t hefty enough for one of the most dominant pitchers of the ’90s. He was absolute nails in the 1997 playoffs for an Orioles team that fell to Cleveland in the ALCS, and by the time he became a Bomber and hit the spotlight, the Yankees’ dynasty had wrapped up.

The Cy Young award was, perhaps, his greatest tease of all. Mastering the Steroid Era, Mussina finished fourth twice, fifth three times, sixth three times, and second in 1999 (to Pedro Martinez at the peak of his powers). We’re focused on his fifth-place finish in ’01 simply because it could not be more obvious the voters were wowed by a shocking win-loss record — Clemens’ 20-3 mark, one of the final times W-L would ever hold historical significance again.

Meanwhile, Clemens posted a 3.53 ERA, 5.7 WAR, a 1.257 WHIP and a 128 ERA+. He secured 21 of the 28 first-place votes; Mussina had zero.

In his first year in the Bronx, Moose out-WAR’d his teammate with a ridiculous 7.1 mark, which led all AL pitchers. He put up a superior 3.15 ERA in 228.2 innings, striking out 214 with a 1.067 WHIP and 143 ERA+.

And yet, he went “just” 17-11 and fell behind Freddy Garcia, Mark Mulder, and Jamie Moyer in the lopsided voting. Clemens earned his sixth of seven trophies, and Mussina earned a longer wait for Hall of Fame enshrinement. If this exact race had taken place in 2021, it would’ve been completely reversed.

Clemens was Julio Urías. Mussina was Corbin Burnes.

Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /

1. 2017 MVP Race, Aaron Judge vs. Jose Altuve

You’ve all seen the infographics. You know the tale of the tape here. This is, perhaps, the most classic example you’ll ever see of voters being wowed by something unique, as long as that “something” isn’t wearing a Yankees uniform.

Which is insane! Because Aaron Judge is as much of a unicorn as anyone who’s ever put on pinstripes, and this was his national debut!

Alas, voters examined the race and selected small over big. They selected Houston over New York. They selected slashing singles over monstrous power. And they made a mistake.

For as spectacularly tiny as Jose Altuve is, Judge’s 6-7, 282-pound frame is just as unexpected on a baseball diamond. You’d think that a hulking rookie destroying baseballs into the stratosphere would’ve overwhelmed the voting body, but instead they decided they were bored with strikeouts. They hated his tough July and August (.230 and .185 with 10 total home runs, though he still got on base at .364 and .353 clips). They hated, perhaps most of all, that he seemed to represent the boom-or-bust “modern game,” and that he did it in a Yankee uniform.

Comparing the two seasons in totality leaves you no other conclusion than, “Yeah, Judge deserved it.” Judge had more WAR (again, as a rookie), topping Altuve 8.0 to 7.7. He had more runs scored (128 to 112). He had more homers (duh, but 52 to 24), more RBI (114 to 81), a higher OPS (1.049 to .957), and a higher OBP (.422 to .410) despite Altuve literally hitting .346. And that was that. The voters saw a high average with moderate pop and voted for Altuve in a landslide; he received 27 first-place votes to Judge’s … two.

Judge was better. Judge and Altuve are two different players, though Altuve was a less helpful type of player in 2017. Voters decided they preferred Altuve’s throwback nature and narrative. Voters were not correct to do so.

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