Chatelain: Sanchez Is Rookie Of Past 2 Months, Not Rookie Of The Year
By Ryan Chatelain
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As the "Gary Sanchez for Rookie of the Year" campaign gains traction, I find myself thinking back to Casey Martin.
Remember him?
Martin was a pro golfer who sued the PGA Tour in 1998 for the right to use a golf cart because he suffered from a rare circulatory disorder in his right leg that prevented him from walking 18 holes.
Bear with me here.
While Martin eventually won his case and had a short-lived career on the tour, a lot of people believed the courts got it wrong and argued that using a cart put him at an unfair advantage. They said the hike around an expansive golf course, especially under a sometimes unforgiving sun, causes fatigue that can impact shots on the back nine and that Martin, with his cart, was bypassing that trying aspect of the sport.
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I don't mean to sound insensitive about Martin's condition by making this comparison, but as astonishing as Sanchez's season has been, the Yankees catcher does not deserve to be Rookie of the Year for much of the same reason Martin's critics didn't like that he was allowed to compete in the PGA.
Yes, Sanchez recently became the first major league player to clobber 19 homers in his first 45 big league games (which includes two games last year). Yes, despite playing in a fraction of the games, he ranks second among AL rookies in home runs.
But with just 44 games under his belt this season -- which could be as many as 54 by the Oct. 2 finale -- Sanchez has avoided what should be an important criterion in winning the award: proving himself over the long, grueling major league season.
Because he wasn't called up until Aug. 3, Sanchez is bypassing two-thirds of the season that could have seen him go into a vote-swaying slump. It also has limited his exposure to injuries, which can squash an otherwise worthy player's Rookie of the Year hopes.
Meanwhile, other rookies who endured all or most of the six-month season were subjected to all the potential pitfalls that come with it.
While the pace that Sanchez has been crushing homers is jaw-dropping, clearly his .333 batting average also is undoubtedly part of his selling point. But anyone who has looked at a list of MLB stats leaders on June 1 should know that the same list tends to look far different by Oct. 1.
Take two veterans -- Washington's Daniel Murphy and the Cubs' Ben Zobrist -- for example. Through Murphy's first 44 games this season, he was batting .389. Today, he's hitting .347. Lower, but still exceptional.
Zobrist was hitting .350 after his first 44 games this year. Now he's batting .267. Pedestrian.
You might believe Sanchez can do no wrong no matter how many games he plays -- after all, he hasn't given people much reason to think otherwise. But the reality is no one can say what his stats might look like with another 100 games of action. Maybe he would end up at .240 with 25 homers, which would probably still earn him Rookie of the Year votes but not win him a plaque. Maybe he would indeed keep up his torrid pace and be a unanimous winner.
That's the problem: We just don't know. We would just be guessing. And awards shouldn't be given out on a hunch.
Some Sanchez supporters might argue that his batting average could taper off considerably and he'd probably still produce enough homers to carry him in the voting. Maybe so. But if you don't think power numbers can evaporate in a flash, too, perhaps you haven't heard of Jay Bruce.
If Sanchez wins Rookie of the Year based on a relatively small sample size, he essentially would be rewarded on some level for not making the big leagues back in April. How is that fair?
Meanwhile, Detroit's Michael Fulmer, Cleveland's Tyler Naquin and other top Rookie of the Year candidates would essentially have points deducted because they weren't allowed to sprint the 100-meter dash but instead were forced to run the marathon.
The Rangers' Nomar Mazara won AL Rookie of the Month in both April and May. I'm sure he would have loved it if the award was based solely on two months. Good luck finding his name on a watch list list today.
Look at the National League Rookie of the Year race.
What Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story did earlier this season doesn't quite match what Sanchez has accomplished, but he was making a lot of history, too. He became the first player to homer twice in his debut, was the first since 1900 to homer in his first three games and tied a rookie record with 10 homers in April.
Through his first 44 games, Story was hitting .272 with 13 homers and 33 RBIs. Extrapolated over the course of a full season (let's say 154 games to account for days off), that would be 46 homers and 116 RBIs. Instead, he now has a .272 average, 27 homers and 72 RBIs -- still good numbers, but proof that it's far easier to be great in short stretches.
Story won't win the NL Rookie of the Year. That will go to the Dodgers' Corey Seager. But if Story played in the AL, his power surge came in the final two months, rather than the first two months, and Sanchez was still in Scranton, you'd probably be hearing the same arguments about him that we're hearing about Sanchez today.
And spare me that a pitcher -- Fulmer -- is no more deserving because he only pitches every five days. That's the nature of his position. And if you believe that, then you're advocating for Jacob deGrom, Jose Fernandez, Justin Verlander and many others to be stripped of their plaques.
And let's not act as though Sanchez has had some historic impact on his team that cannot go ignored. The Yankees were flirting with a wild card back on Aug. 3, but most didn't think they'd close the gap. They're in the same spot today.
It would not be some great injustice if Sanchez becomes the next Babe Ruth and is somehow not honored as the Rookie of the Year. It doesn't mean that what he's accomplished is not something that we should remember and talk about for generations. Want to blame someone? Blame the Yankees for not recognizing his talent sooner.
Too many people seem to be overlooking the final word in the title "Rookie of the Year."
Sanchez's supporters, especially, aren't looking at the whole picture.
They like the convenience of the golf cart.
Please follow Ryan on Twitter at @ryanchatelain
