Baltimore Orioles: Trey Mancini for Rookie of the Year
Division races are exciting. This is especially so when it's a year-long battle between three teams. The Baltimore Orioles are in the hunt, and their rookie first baseman is a big factor.
The American League East standings currently show the New York Yankees at the top. Down the table you'll see the Baltimore Orioles in third place by just a few games. Trey Mancini is having a grand rookie year, keeping the O's close. He's earning his way to everyday player status with play that puts him among league leaders in the rookie category.
But saying he's a Rookie of the Year candidate when nobody even knew who he was outside of Baltimore is a tad bold, right? Well, yeah, considering there's also Andrew Benintendi and Aaron Judge. His chances are small, but Mancini is still a dark horse running.
Mancini is 25 and not able to play the young star card like Benintendi can. He's not taking every front page by storm like Judge is. He never showed up on any top prospect lists. He was an eighth round first base-only prospect out of Notre Dame in 2013. As a ballplayer, you know what the team wants from you from the get-go without even being told.
The writing was on the wall for Mancini, telling Jon Meoli of The Baltimore Sun, "Eighth round, first baseman – you're going to have to hit. I knew that at the time, and I probably wasn't going to make the majors being a great defender and not being able to hit." This is exactly what he's done. There's been some defense too.
Mancini has collected 132 at-bats through 40 games. His .295 average in that span sets him at fifth among AL rookies. He has more plate appearances than the four in front of him, excluding Judge. In terms of statistics, Judge is the only real competition at this point.
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Looking at pure statistics between these two rookies, Mancini and Judge, it's not a competition at all. Judge is raking, if you haven't heard. He's looking at a slash line of .326/.433/.691, 18 home runs, eight doubles and two triples. MVP numbers. He's stolen Giancarlo Stanton's job of breath-taking exit velocity.
Mancini is doing well for himself as well. His slash line is still pretty; a .295/.340/.515 gets you to an All-Star Game. Seven home runs, eight doubles. Respect. He's on pace for a year similar to Freddie Freeman's rookie season, which netted Freeman second place in ROY voting to Craig Kimbrel.
Judge's team is in first place, and he's a huge reason why. Mancini's team is in third place in the same division, and he's only partly the reason. Considering Judge's quick rise to stardom, it will take a lot of regression for him to lose the top spot in the running. This is something people have wondered about.
Mancini likely won't take his game to the next level. He has maxed out his tools. Judge has plenty of power, but his game doesn't support long-term sustenance of the numbers he's put up. Regression is likely. If/when it happens, Mancini will stand a chance. Right now, though, it's Judge's race to lose.
