Baseball’s highest individual honors for 2021 will be bestowed over the next couple of days. The two winners of the Cy Young Award will be announced tomorrow night, while the American and National Leagues will name their Most Valuable Players on Thursday.
The same yearend impulse is inspiring me today to salute outstanding performances in three categories. My awards are newer in conception (created last year) and admittedly lacking in tradition. Yet it can’t be denied that the winners exhibited considerable skill in 2021 and deserve to be saluted.
You may remember that I actually began my awards season last week with these honors:
Ted Williams Award (batting): Shohei Ohtani, Angels, in AL; Bryce Harper, Phillies, in NL
Lou Gehrig Award (scoring): Bo Bichette, Blue Jays, in AL; Ozzie Albies, Braves, in NL
Babe Ruth Award (power): Shohei Ohtani, Angels, in AL; Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres, in NL
This week’s awards are cut from the same cloth. Each is named after a Hall of Famer, and each celebrates league-leading production in a specific category. You’ll find the details below.
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Nellie Fox Award (contact)
Nellie Fox was one of the top second basemen in the American League during the 1950s. He led the Chicago White Sox to an unexpected pennant in 1959, winning the Most Valuable Player Award in the process.
Fox’s most notable skill was his ability to put the bat on the ball. He hardly ever took a third strike. He struck out just 216 times in 9,232 at-bats, which translates to a contact rate of .977. (Contact rate is the share of at-bats that did not end in strikeouts.)
No postwar ballplayer in the Hall of Fame came close to Fox’s contact rate, so it’s unsurprising that everybody in the free-swinging 21st century falls short. But a few batters are respectably capable of avoiding strikeouts.
Kevin Newman, a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, led the majors with a .921 contact rate in 2021, striking out just 41 times in 517 at-bats. (The curious thing is that he had such a low batting average, .226, despite putting so many balls in play.) Newman thereby wins the National League’s Nellie Fox Award, while the .904 for David Fletcher of the Angels secures the honor in the American League.
Here are the top five contact rates in each league (among players with at least 502 plate appearances):
American League
David Fletcher, Angels, .904
Michael Brantley, Astros, .887
Yuli Gurriel, Astros, .872
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Rangers, .858
Nicky Lopez, Royals, .851
National League
Kevin Newman, Pirates, .921
Adam Frazier, Pirates-Padres, .880
Raimel Tapia, Rockies, .856
Tommy Edman, Cardinals, .852
Miguel Rojas, Marlins, .851
Rickey Henderson Award (batting eye)
Yes, Rickey Henderson could hit, and yes, he could steal bases. Those are the skills that won him a plaque in Cooperstown.
But Henderson also knew the strike zone as well as anyone who ever played the game. He received 2,129 unintentional walks during his career, translating to a batting-eye rate of .160, based on the ratio of unintentional walks to the number of plate appearances after intentional walks have been subtracted.
Henderson’s eye was so sharp that he struck out 435 fewer times than he walked. His career totals: 1,694 strikeouts, 2,129 unintentional walks.
That’s a rare occurrence these days, though Juan Soto managed it in 2021. The right fielder for the Washington Nationals walked 145 times last season, while striking out on 93 occasions. His batting-eye rate of .193 was the best in the majors, securing the NL’s Rickey Henderson Award. Soto’s AL counterpart is Joey Gallo (.173), an outfielder and designated hitter who split his season between the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees.
These were the five best batting-eye rates in each league:
American League
Joey Gallo, Rangers-Yankees, .173
Robbie Grossman, Tigers, .142
Yoan Moncada, White Sox, .135
Josh Donaldson, Twins, .133
Matt Chapman, Athletics, .129
National League
Juan Soto, Nationals, .193
Bryce Harper, Phillies, .147
Andrew McCutchen, Phillies, .138
Joey Votto, Reds, .135
Tommy Pham, Padres, .134
Willie Mays Award (fielding-batting combination)
Willie Mays, of course, was the complete package. He was one of the greatest hitters in big-league history — and one of the greatest fielders, too.
This award recognizes both abilities. It’s limited to the eight position players in each league who won the season’s Gold Glove Awards. These fielding whizzes are then ranked by bases per out (BPO), the best measure of batting ability.
The winner of the Willie Mays Award in each league is therefore guaranteed to be outstanding with both the bat and the glove — and the 2021 honorees fit the bill. They are Marcus Semien of the Toronto Blue Jays (Gold Glove at second base, .890 BPO) and Tyler O’Neill of the St. Louis Cardinals (Gold Glove at left field, .944 BPO).
Below are the five top-rated finalists in each league.
American League
Marcus Semien, Blue Jays, .890
Joey Gallo, Rangers-Yankees, .867
Carlos Correa, Astros, .839
Yuli Gurriel, Astros, .823
Andrew Benintendi, Royals, .723
National League
Tyler O’Neill, Cardinals, .944
Brandon Crawford, Giants, .927
Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals, .896
Harrison Bader, Cardinals, .760
Nolan Arenado, Cardinals, .757