James Outman finishes 3rd in National League Rookie of the Year voting

Dodgers center fielder James Outman finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting, an award that went to Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll unanimously.

Carroll received all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America, which has two voters representing each league city for all of its awards. Outman received five second-place votes and five third-place votes for a total of 20 points to finish third.

Mets pitcher Kodai Senga garnered 22 second-place votes and five third-place votes to earn 71 points and finish in second place. Points are tallied with five points for every first-place vote, three points for second-place votes, and one point for third-place votes. In all, nine players received votes for National League Rookie of the Year.

Outman has the highest finish by a Dodger in Rookie of the Year voting since 2018, when pitcher Walker Buehler was also in third place in the National League.

Outman hit .248/.353/.437 with a 118 wRC+, 23 home runs, 68 walks, and 16 stolen bases. He rated above average defensively in center field by both Outs Above Average (+8) and Defensive Runs Saved (+1), which helped keep him in the lineup through a slump at the plate in May and June.

Outman recovered at the plate, and hit .264/.392/.458 with a 137 wRC+ after the All-Star break. He was named National League rookie of the month in both April and August, the second Dodgers rookie to win the monthly honor twice.

He was the first Dodgers rookie with at least 20 homers and 15 steals, and just the second with double-digits in both stats, along with Cody Bellinger (39 home runs, 10 steals) in 2017.

The Rookie of the Year Awards are named after Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who won the inaugural honor for Brooklyn in 1947 when there was only one award for the entire major leagues. Robinson was the first of 18 Dodgers to win Rookie of the Year, double the total of the next-highest teams (Yankees, Braves).

But the Dodgers have also had nine other players finish either second or third for Rookie of the Year, including Outman, Walker Buehler (2018), and Kenta Maeda (2016) in the last ten years.

I had a vote for Rookie of the Year this season, and I chose Carroll first, Outman second, and Rockies outfielder Nolan Jones third.

Carroll was far and away the clear winner for me, already the best player on the D-backs who led National League rookies in home runs (25), stolen based (54), runs scored (116), triples (10), hits (161), extra-base hits (65), total bases (286), fWAR (6.0), and bWAR (5.4).

After Carroll, a number of rookies had cases for second place. Jones led NL rookies with a 135 wRC+, which earned him my third-place vote despite playing in only 106 games. I gave Outman the edge for a full season in center field, where he graded out above average. Outman was second among NL rookies in fWAR (4.4), runs scored (86), and tied for the lead with 68 walks.

Senga was right there in the mix, with his 2.98 ERA and 3.87 xERA in 166⅓ innings for the Mets, with 202 strikeouts.

Reds shortstop and second baseman Matt McLain was also considered. He impressed both on offense (128 wRC+) and defense (+4 Defensive Runs Saved, +2 Outs Above Average) but only played in 89 games.