Houston Astros outfielder/designated hitter Yordan Alvarez was named the 2019 American League Rookie of the Year on Monday night. He prevailed in the voting over John Means of the Orioles and Brandon Lowe of the Rays. Alvarez was voted a unanimous winner, taking all 30 first-place votes.
Alvarez, 22, made his MLB debut on June 9 and slashed .313/.412/.655 with a 1.067 OPS in just 87 games for the AL champion Astros.
He's the 11th player to win the AL Rookie of the Year award by a unanimous vote and the first player in Houston Astros history to win the award unanimously. He joins Jeff Bagwell in the NL (1991) and Carlos Correa in the AL (2015) as the only Astros players to win the award.
Means finished with 16 second-place votes, while Lowe received six second-place votes. Meanwhile, Mets home run machine Pete Alonso was named 2019 Rookie of the Year in the National League.
An left-handed weapon, Alvarez set an MLB record with 51 RBI in his first 45 games. He finished the 2019 season with a 173 OPS+ to go along with 26 doubles, 78 RBI and 27 home runs. Of Alvarez's regular season rookie season homers, his most memorable was a monster blast to the third deck at Minute Maid Park. The rookie slugger also hit three homers in an Aug. 11 game against the Orioles.
The only rookie in the Modern Era (with a minimum 300 plate appearances) that finished the season with a higher OPS+ than Alvarez was Joe Jackson (193) in 1911. Alvarez's 178 wRC+ ranked second-best among batters with a minimum of 350 plate appearances, only behind Angels outfielder Mike Trout.
The Rookie of the Year trophies were the first of the major MLB awards to be handed out this week. Keep up with all the awards finalists and schedule here.
As a reminder, voting for all major awards takes places after the regular season and before the postseason. These are regular season awards only. The full 2019 AL Rookie of the Year voting results can be seen at the Baseball Writers' Association of America's website.
