Oscar Mercado appeared in 115 games for the Cleveland Indians in 2019 and finished with a WAR total of 2.2. All of this was done as a rookie so fans may have been wondering if he was in contention for Rookie of the Year.
Not quite. Mercado ended up finishing eighth in the voting with three third-place votes. The American League Award went to Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, who only appeared in 87 games.
Mercado didn’t stand out as a superstar but I thought he was better than the eighth-best rookie in the AL.