On Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager became the 17th player in franchise history to be named the National League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year. Seager is the Dodgers’ first winner since Todd Hollandsworth in 1996.
The 22-year-old shortstop was the 21st unanimous selection all-time. Mike Piazza (1993) and Raul Mondesi (1994) are the only other Dodgers to unanimously win the award. “It’s awesome. To bring it back to L.A., it hasn’t been there for a while but they’re known as an organization for winning all those Rookie of the Years,” Seager said.
“It’s pretty cool to be accepted with all those guys who came before you. It’s pretty special for me.”
Seager entered the 2016 season as the odds-on favorite to win Rookie of the Year. But that didn’t seep into or affect his mindset. “You can’t expect anything in this game,” he said.
“You have to come every day, be consistent with your approach and teammates to go out there and win games and perform every night. It’s not an easy game, so it’s one of those things that you don’t take anything for granted. It’s a hard game that battles you every night mentally and physically. You have to be as consistent as possible.”
Seager, who also won a Silver Slugger Award, joins Fernando Valenzuela (1981) and Piazza (1993) as Dodgers rookies to be named the top offensive player in the NL at their position and Rookie of the Year in the same season.
Complete history of Dodgers Rookie of the Year winners
Seager hit .308/.365/.512 with a 137 OPS+, .372 wOBA and 137 wRC+ over 157 games. He led the team in batting average, on-base percentage, total hits (193), doubles (40), triples (five) and was second in home runs (26).
Seager led qualified NL shortstops in doubles, home runs, batting average, slugging, wOBA, wRC+, was second in OBP and third in RBI. He broke the Los Angeles franchise record for most hits in a single season by a rookie; previously held by Steve Sax (180 hits in 1982).
Seager also set a Dodgers franchise record for most home runs by a shortstop in a season, broke Eric Karros’ rookie record for most doubles (30), and with 321 total bases broke Piazza’s rookie record (307).
