Francisco Lindor did not win the American League Rookie of the Year award, but that's okay

It sucks to make this far and not win it, but Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor has officially lost the American League Rookie of the Year voting to fellow shortstop Carlos Correa of the Houston Astros. Correa finished with 17 first place votes and 124 total points overall, while Lindor finished with 13 first place votes and 109 points overall.

Most signs pointed to this outcome throughout the offseason, thanks in large part to Correa’s big home run numbers and because his team made the playoffs, but many felt Lindor could sneak away with more votes from the BBWAA based on being better overall statistically with much better defense. It would have been refreshing to see baseball writers starting to come around on evaluating actual player performance and not giving unfair boosts to another player just because his team happened to be built much better around him, however. Nothing against Correa, personally, but Lindor should be a runaway favorite when looking at these two in a vacuum.

Lindor finished 2015 with a .313/.353/.482 batting line, including 12 home runs; good for a wRC+ of 128. Coming up through the minor leagues, his glove was always his main selling point and it translated perfectly to the Majors. There is no guarantee that Lindor will always be able to hit so well throughout his career, but his excellent defense at shortstop should last until his legs start to fall off.

But it is what it is. Correa winning American League Rookie of the Year is not a travesty, but it would have been great to see Lindor win.

This marks the final chance that the Indians had at taking home any hardware this November. Several players missed out on Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards, and I have a hunch that Terry Francona is probably not going to win Manager of the Year when it is announced on Wednesday. This also would have been first Rookie of the Year award won by a Cleveland Indians player since current first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. took home the award as the Tribe’s catcher in 1990. Prior to that, ROY-winning Indians players included Joe Charboneau in 1980, Chris Chambliss in 1971, and Herb Score in 1955.

Regardless of whether he won the award or not the award, it has been a pleasure to watch Lindor handle shortstop since being called up for the final 100 games of the season. I feel that I can speak for all Indians fans when I say we cannot wait to watch him do it for many more years to come in an Indians uniform.

Get ‘em next year, Lindor. Keep on smiling