San Diego Padres fans were understandably incensed by the results of the NL Rookie of the Year race. While Jackson Merrill losing to the (very talented) Paul Skenes wasn’t crazy or even unexpected, the fact that Merrill lost by such a significant margin was met with widespread disdain by the Friar faithful. Not only did Merrill have a great case to win the award, but the results felt rigged by writers who were just hungry for the easiest storyline to write about.
What’s done is done, but there was an interesting wrinkle added to the proceedings when the results of the NL MVP race were released on Thursday.
As expected, Shohei Ohtani won the award easily, but Merrill ended up placing ninth in the MVP race while Skenes, fresh off his NL ROY win, only appeared on a single ballot.
Jackson Merrill’s MVP finish really calls into question the ROY voting process
Now, this isn’t (and maybe shouldn’t be) an apples to oranges comparison. One, the blocs of voters for Rookie of the Year and for MVP are different. Another factor potentially in play here is that a lot of MVP voters tend to, right or wrong, shy away from voting for pitchers period except in the most extreme of cases.
It is interesting that Jackson Merrill was listed on 19 NL MVP ballots and finished in 9th place, while Paul Skenes was named on one ballot and finished tied for 19th, yet Skenes received 23 of 30 NL Rookie of the Year votes to Merrill’s seven. Different voters, of course.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) November 22, 2024
That said, it sure is eyebrow-raising that voters seemed to attribute so much of the Padres’ success in 2024 to the contributions of Merrill, whereas Skenes, whose Pirates squad was universally disappointing, didn’t get anywhere near the same level of support. Perhaps if the voting blocs had been reversed, Merrill would have gotten the ROY award and Skenes’ supporters would be the ones that are spitting mad right now.
We’ll never know the answer to that hypothetical and, in all honesty, both players are very deserving of the recognition they are getting. But it at least gives Merrill a promising trajectory for 2025 and beyond.
