Teammates Michael Harris II And Spencer Strider Top NL Rookie Balloting, Suggesting Bright Future For Youthful Atlanta Braves

For the first time since 2011, teammates took the top two spots in voting for National League Rookie of the Year.

Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider were the first Braves to finish first and second in the voting since Craig Kimbrel and Freddie Freeman. Both Kimbrel and Freeman went on to become All-Stars, an objective that Harris and Strider could reach as soon as next summer, and future contenders for Cooperstown.

In this year’s results, announced live on MLB Network, Harris had 22 first-place votes, while Strider had the other eight. Brendan Donovan of the St. Louis Cardinals finished third.

Since ranked voting began in 1980, only three previous teammate tandems have finished first and second in Rookie of the Year voting: Alvin Davis and Mark Langston of the 1984 Seattle Mariners, Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith of the 1989 Chicago Cubs, and the Kimbrel-Freeman duo 11 years ago.

The Braves are so convinced that their 2022 rookie stars have bright futures that they’ve already given both long-term contract extensions. After he’d played just 71 games at the big-league level, Harris signed an eight-year, $72 million extension on Aug. 16.

Never mind that he was the youngest player in the majors – just 21 — at the time of his promotion on May 28.

Strider followed suit on Oct. 10 – the day before the Braves began their 2022 playoff schedule — by signing a six-year, $75 million deal. With club options included, the Harris contract could last for 10 seasons, while Strider could be set for seven.

The team had already extended infielders Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, and Matt Olson plus outfielder and 2018 Rookie of the Year Ronald Acuña, Jr. – all under age 30.

Those signings continued a club policy of signing its young, talented core and prolonging their tenures with the team rather than run the risk that they could sign elsewhere as free agents after six years of service.

So far, Harris doesn’t even have one year: when the Atlanta native and lifelong Braves fan was promoted, he had played just 43 games above the High-A level.

But the team needed to improve its outfield defense and took a chance, moving veteran Adam Duvall from center to left and making Harris the regular in the middle garden. But he hit far better than expected for a player with such little experience.

Batting almost everywhere in the lineup, Harris responded with 19 home runs, 20 stolen bases, and a .297 batting average plus dazzling defense in center field, where coaches claimed he supplied the best glove since Hall of Fame contender Andruw Jones, winner of 10 consecutive Gold Gloves.

By the time the season ended, Harris had a 5.3 bWAR [wins against replacement], a rare achievement in the divisional play era and the best showing by any 2022 rookie.

Only 33 previous rookies since the leagues split into divisions in 1969 had reached a level of 5.0 WAR but all played more games than Harris’ 114. The only NL Rookie of the Year position player since 2010 with a better bWAR than Harris was Pete Alonso of the 2019 Mets. Mike Trout, Jose Abreu, and Aaron Judge were AL winners did it in the American League.

Harris, a lethal left-handed hitter who produced an .853 OPS, needed one more home run to join Chris Young of the 2007 Arizona Diamondbacks as the only NL rookies to produce 20/20 seasons.

Harris not only hit a robust .383 with men in scoring position but led the league’s rookies in hits, extra-base hits, and runs batted in. In the field, he finished fifth among center-fielders with eight Defensive Runs Saved and eighth with eight Outs Above Average.

Somehow bypassed for a potential Gold Glove this season, there could be many in his future.

There could be many titles for the team as well. Less than a week after Harris joined the team, the Braves launched a 14-game winning streak that catapulted them into a successful, season-long NL East title chase with the New York Mets.

With Harris, Atlanta went 79-35 en route to 101 wins – the first time the team reached triple digits since 2003 – and erased a 10½-game deficit in the standings. The Braves have now won five straight titles, the longest active streak of any major-league club.

Like Harris, Strider didn’t play a major role for the Braves until the end of May. With Ian Anderson and Charlie Morton both struggling, however, manager Brian Snitker moved the 24-year-old Strider from the bullpen to the starting rotation on May 30.

Bingo! Banking almost exclusively on a fastball and slider, the hard-throwing right-hander reached 200 strikeouts more quickly than any pitcher in major-league history.

He needed only 130 innings – just under Randy Johnson’s 130 2/3 innings in 2001 and Gerrit Cole’s 133 1/3 innings in 2019.

His season highlight came on Sept. 1, when he fanned a club-record 16 Rockies in eight innings, topping Hall of Famer John Smoltz.

Even though he missed the last three weeks with an oblique strain, he still became the first Braves rookie to fan 200 hitters since the Modern Era began in 1901. Working 11 times in relief and 20 times in the regular rotation, Strider fashioned an 11-5 record, 2.67 earned run average, 0.988 WHIP [walks plus hits per innings pitched], and a best-in-baseball 38.3 per cent strikeouts rate of all the batters he faced.

The Ohio native yielded only 5.9 hits and 0.5 home runs per nine innings, averaging 13.8 strikeouts and 3.1 walks over that same span. He had a 4.39 ratio of strikeouts to walks.

No other pitcher who worked at least 130 innings had more strikeouts per nine innings. And no other rookie starter has ever averaged more whiffs per nine.

Before this season, Strider had only 96 1/3 innings pitched in the professional ranks but was delayed by the virus-shortened season of 2020, when minor-league baseball was cancelled, and by the lockout-shortened spring training of 2022.

The Braves believe his future stats may be even more impressive – especially if the 23-year-old Clemson product perfects a change-up or other off-speed pitch.

During the MLB Network rookie award announcement, pitcher-turned-announcer Dan Plesac said, Strider is “the most dominant first-year pitcher the Braves have ever had.” For a team that produced Hall of Famers Tom Glavine and Smoltz, that’s a lofty compliment.

American League rookie honors, announced on the same two-hour broadcast, went to Julio Rodriguez, the 21-year-old center-fielder who led the Seattle Mariners to their first playoff appearance since 2001.