When people talk about the Rookie of the Year Award, they’re generally talking about the “official” one MLB hands out, voted on by members of the BBWAA. But almost every outlet will do some version of end-of-year awards, and the first of those dropped this week: Baseball America has named Julio Rodríguez their Rookie of the Year.
Julio is the first-ever Mariner to be awarded this honor from the august publication. (Yes, Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t win—because the first year BA gave out this award was 1989, two years after The Kid’s debut.) He’s also the first AL player to be named in three years, with the last AL winner being Shohei Ohtani in 2018.