Do you like hitting or do you like pitching? Is one more important to you than the other? Does it matter if one of the players had to work his way through some pretty intense games in a pennant race while the other played for an also ran?
What if one started the all star game? Is it more important that a player spent every day of the season on an MLB roster?
The National League rookie of the year award will come down to those questions in what will probably be one of the hottest contested battles for the award in a long time.
In this corner, a first overall draft pick that was much heralded and expected any moment after the season started.
He was the National League starting pitcher in the All star game, a rare feat for a rookie, ladies and gentlemen, from the Pittsburgh Pirates Paul Skenes.
And in this corner a young shortstop who surprisingly made his team’s opening day roster and didn’t end up playing a single inning at shortstop.
Instead he played a full season at a position he had never played before and stellar centerfield he did play, while delovering some of the biggest late game blasts of any player in recent memory, ladies and gentlemen, Jackson Merrill.
Unanimous winners last season
Unlike 2023 when the Diamondbacks Corbin Carroll and the Orioles Gunnar Henderson made the rookie of the year no contest with both collecting all 30 votes in their respective leagues, there is a battle here that could go either way.
Hard to believe that another Jackson, 20 year old Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers who has already surpassed both 20 homers and 20 steals will probably finish a distant 3rd, putting up what will be a 4 war season.
If war is your thing, Skenes is your man, sitting at 6 with one start to go, Merrill at 4.2. Skenes at 11-3 witha 1.99 ERA, the earned run average would lead the league if Skenes qualified but you need 162 innings to do that and he sits at 131.
If you want clutch, it’s tough to find a player that delivered more important blows for his team than Merrill and since the Padres will be a post season participant, every one of those was huge.
Forbes reported Merrill has hit six game-tying or go-ahead home runs in the eighth inning or later this season, tied with Frank Robinson for the most in an age-21 season or younger since 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
In 14 plate appearances with the Padres tied or trailing by a run in the ninth inning, Merrill is hitting .583 with a walk and five homers, according to research by MLB.com. For that, he would get my vote!
