In last year’s MLB Pipeline Poll, executives across baseball overwhelmingly picked Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson to win Rookie of the Year honors in the National and American Leagues. They turned out to be right on the money, as both were unanimous choices for the hardware.
Predicting this year’s winners might be a taller task. There is no real favorite in the American League and while it’s not as clear-cut in the National League, the news of Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto signing with the Dodgers certainly changed the landscape there.
As part of our survey, we asked front office officials — including general managers, members of scouting player development and analytics departments — a huge array of questions. We received responses from all 30 organizations in the hopes of providing as large a cross-section of opinion as possible. Answers on many topics will be discussed in a week-long series, starting with their collective take on who will be the 2024 Rookie of the Year winners.
Also received votes: Michael Busch, 3B/2B, Dodgers; Kyle Harrison, LHP, Giants; Jacob Hurtubise, OF, Reds; James Wood, OF, Nationals
Full disclosure here: This survey first was sent out before Yamamoto had agreed to join the Dodgers. Those who responded did so at different times, some before the news broke, some after. This initially started out as a very tight race, but we afforded those who had answered pre-Yamamoto the opportunity to change their vote, and many did.
While Yamamoto doesn’t qualify as a prospect (We use the same rules that govern the international bonus system for our rankings.), he is eligible for Rookie of the Year honors, much like Kaz Sasaki and Ichiro when they won in 2000 and 2001. Given his success in Japan and the knowledge he’s going to step right into a playoff-caliber team’s rotation, it’s not a big leap to think he has a very good chance to win the NL Award in 2024.
