Miguel Andújar robbed for Rookie of the Year? How he’s making his sophomore year with the Yankees a memorable one.
As many Yankees fans can agree, Miguel Andújar was the easy choice for Rookie of the Year for the 2018 season. What’s even more surprising, is that even the players wanted Andújar to win, and felt he should have. As we all know, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) makes the decision on Rookie of the Year, and like we’ve said many times on The Roll Call, they just look at stats and not how the player impacts the team. Yes, stats can be important, but sometime the stats mean nothing if there isn’t much impact to the team. You can have a player with great stats but they only played 40 games, compared to the player with decent stats who played 85 games. The player who only played 40 games more than likely didn’t have as much of an impact to the team as the player who played 80 games.
Shohei Ohtani, the 2018 Rookie of the Year for the American League, played 104 games as a hitter, while Andújar played 149. Ohtani had a .285 batting average, 93 hits, 22 home runs, and 61 RBI’s. Andújar had a .297 batting average, 170 hits, 27 home runs, and 92 RBI’s. The only thing Ohtani has over Andújar is that Ohtani can pitch. If only you can see my eyes roll. Ohtani only pitched 10 games and had a 3.31 ERA, but yet he is somehow a better choice for Rookie of the Year then Andújar? Masahiro Tanaka pitched 27 games and had a 3.75 ERA, stats would tell you Ohtani is the better pitcher, but Tanaka pitched almost triple the games with only a slight difference in both players ERA. Do you see where I’m coming from here? Stats may sometimes look better on paper, but Ohtani was not the star player for the Los Angeles Angels, outfielder Mike Trout was and will continue to be until he leaves the Angels. I can guarantee you this; Rookie of the Year finalists Miguel Andújar and Gleyber Torres will have a way better season this year then Ohtani, and the BBWAA will scratch their heads on why they made such a poor decision the year prior.
Although I can go on and on about this topic, let’s see how Miguel Andújar looks for 2019. I have made it very clear on The Roll Call, that Andújar was and will be the Yankees starting third baseman. Even when Manny Machado was in “talks” with becoming a Yankee, I knew the Yankees were not giving up on Andújar. A great choice for the Yankees, as this kid is only just starting. As a young 23 year old, Andújar put up some impressive numbers. After the All-Star weekend, where Andújar was not chosen to represent the club,, a lot of players and commentators for sure thought Gleyber Torres would be your Rookie of the Year. Torres was playing great baseball and was chosen to represent the Bombers in the All-Star game as a rookie. Do you think Andújar was going to take that lightly? He went ‘Hey I’m a good baseball player, let me show you all what I can do’. Andújar came back swinging, literally. When you can say you’ve broken a record for most doubles in a rookie season with the Yankees that was originally held by Joe DiMaggio the “Yankee Clipper”, that’s super impressive and should not be pushed under the rug. This record was over 80 years old, which means a lot of great Yankee rookies couldn’t get close to this number.
Many are concerned about Andújar’s defensive skills. Although there were some errors made last year, some more severe than others, there really wasn’t anything super troubling to me. He’s a young player and young players in their rookie season playing in the big leagues (especially with a franchise like the Yankees), tend to make a lot of mistakes. Gleyber Torres had 17 defensive errors compared to Andújar’s 15 defensive errors, and Torres was everyone’s choice for Rookie of the Year! What fans focus on is one major play ruled an error, and then never let that player live it down. They would rather write Andújar off and have the Yankees spend a ridiculous amount of money to sign Manny Machado, who has notable issues of his own but we won’t go there. It is also worth noting that the 2018 AL Golden Glove award went to Oakland Athletics’ Matt Chapman had 20 errors, more errors then Andújar. Just let that sink in a bit, Andújar had fewer errors thn the Golden Glove winner.
A report came out recently indicating that Andújar wants his defense for 2019 to have fans talking and not groaning. According to this report, Andújar would constantly pull up a video of Adrian Beltre (Andújar’s hero), to try and emulate what he has done at third base. The way he throws the ball and holds himself at the position is something Andújar admires. The Yankees and Andújar recognized that there was some work to be done in the offseason. The biggest concerns for Andújar and the Yankees, was how he throws (Andújar tends to throw sidearm) and how he uses his feet. Similar to a few other Yankees players that struggled last year, Andújar went down to Tampa after the end of their season in October. Andújar spent some time with Manager Aaron Boone and infield instructor Carlos Mendoza, both notable infielders during their time. After spending some time in Tampa, Andújar went back to Dominican Republic to continue improving his agility. Boone and Mendoza did go and visit Andújar in Dominican Republic to see his progress, and they liked what they saw. Andújar started to look more comfortable in his fielding drills and had patience. He had more of an athletic stance and started to incorporate a slight hop. According to Mendoza the hop is to help Andújar’s accuracy, last year he was a step too late when the ball was pitched.
Overall, I’m not too worried about Andújar during this 2019 season. We know Andújar’s determination to improve will bring great results. Everyone doubted Andújar’s skills last year, and he showed everyone how good of a player he can be. The first half of the season, Andújar wasn’t even a contender for Rookie of the Year, and he ended his year as the runner up. Nothing needs to be done with his swing, he has already shone what he can do and I wouldn’t doubt if we see bigger numbers offensively from Andújar this 2019 season. From the sounds of how Andújar’s offseason went, I am sure we will see a big improvement defensively and everyone will forget the 15 errors he made the year prior. Mark my words, Andújar will be known as one of the greatest third baseman for the Yankees and we’ll all be chanting “He can Dú it!”
