AL Rookie of the Year Rankings: Yu Darvish Tumbles Out of the Top 5

Jun 7, 2018

A month ago, Yu Darvish was an All-Star.

Nowadays, he's the biggest question mark in the Texas Rangers' starting rotation.

Even despite his All-Star status, Darvish never was the most consistent pitcher under the sun. On a given night, he was either going to be brilliant, or he was going to do his best impression of Ubaldo Jimenez. He was seemingly incapable of being just OK.

The brilliant version of Darvish has all but disappeared since the All-Star break. In his last five starts, Darvish has posted an ERA near 8.00 and has walked 21 batters in just 31.1 innings. He still has great stuff, but he's not fooling anyone.

If nothing else, what's become clear in the last couple weeks is that Darvish is no longer a top AL Rookie of the Year candidate.

For the first time all season, Darvish does not have a spot in the top five in this week's AL Rookie of the Year rankings. Scroll ahead to see how the race is shaping up now that he's out of the picture.

Note: All stats are as of the start of play on Wednesday, August 8, and they come from Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

Honorable Mentions

1 of 7

Quintin Berry, OF, Detroit Tigers

Berry still boasts a solid triple-slash line of .282/.363/.386 with 15 stolen bases, but he's slumped since the All-Star break. In 21 games, he's hit just .250/.313/.329. He hasn't started in Detroit's last three games.

Yu Darvish, SP, Texas Rangers

As I mentioned in the intro, Darvish has an ERA near 8.00 in five starts since the break and is walking hitters at an even higher rate than he did in the first half. He's also sitting on an opponents' batting average of .270 since the break—a big increase over the .227 opponents' batting average he posted in the first half.

Jarrod Dyson, OF, Kansas City Royals

Dyson has very quietly been on a tear since the All-Star break, hitting .417/.475/.583 with seven stolen bases. He now has 22 stolen bases on the season, second only to Mike Trout among AL rookies.

Kelvin Herrera, RP, Kansas City Royals

Herrera is yet another Royal who's been hot since the break. In 12 appearances, he has a 1.32 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 13.2 innings pitched. According to FanGraphs, the only AL rookie reliever with a higher WAR than Herrera is Tom Wilhelmsen.

Matt Moore, SP, Tampa Bay Rays

It's hard to believe that I'm just now mentioning Matt Moore for the first time all season, but he deserves a shoutout for the work he's done lately. He's still walking too many hitters, but Moore has a 1.46 ERA in four starts since the break. His ERA is down to 3.84.

Jarrod Parker, SP, Oakland A's

This may be the last time Parker gets an honorable mention for a while. He has a 5.94 ERA and a .310 opponents' batting average over his last six starts.

Addison Reed, RP, Chicago White Sox

His periphery numbers aren't all that impressive, but Reed deserves props for leading all AL rookies with 20 saves.

Pedro Strop, RP, Baltimore Orioles

Strop has logged 14 straight scoreless appearances, dropping his ERA all the way down to 1.27.

Tom Wilhelmsen, RP, Seattle Mariners

Wilhelmsen has been the best rookie reliever in the AL this year, saving 15 games with a 2.47 ERA and a K/9 of 10.54.

5. Scott Diamond, SP, Minnesota Twins

2 of 7

Last Week: Unranked (honorable mention)

We tend to associate this year's Twins club with bad starting pitching, and rightfully so. Twins starters have an ERA of 5.40, worst in the American League.

Things would be even worse (think Rockies-esque levels of awfulness) if it wasn't for Scott Diamond. He's not a Cy Young contender or anything, but he's been a rock in a Twins rotation that has otherwise been painful to watch.

Diamond has made 17 starts this season, going 10-5 with an impressive 2.91 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP. His 2.91 ERA is tops among AL rookie starters with at least 15 starts under their belts.

Diamond has been on a roll lately, going 2-1 with a 1.93 ERA in his last three starts. Those have spanned 23.1 innings, in which he's held opponents to a .217/.224/.277 line.

Diamond helps himself by not putting runners on base via the walk, as his 1.26 BB/9 ranks first among all qualified major league starting pitchers. Beyond that, it's all about racking up ground-ball outs, and that's something Diamond does very well. His 55.9 ground-ball percentage ranks fourth among AL starting pitchers, according to FanGraphs.

He's not going to win the Rookie of the Year, but it's safe to say that Diamond has earned a chance to stick around in Minnesota for a while.

4. Wei-Yin Chen, SP, Baltimore Orioles

3 of 7

Last Week: No. 4

Wei-Yin Chen is Baltimore's very own version of Scott Diamond. The Orioles' starting pitching has been an adventure all season, but Chen has been a rock.

Chen doesn't boast jaw-dropping numbers, but there's nothing to complain about either. Every team in baseball would love to have a lefty starter with a 10-6 record and a 3.46 ERA at this point in the season. Chen also has a solid 1.20 WHIP and a .231 opponents' batting average.

Chen has been good all season, but he's been particularly effective since the All-Star break. He's 3-1 in five starts with a 1.95 ERA over 32.1 innings pitched, in which he's struck out 31 and held hitters to a .174 batting average.

Of Chen's five starts since the break, only one of them wasn't a quality start. And in that start, he struck out 12 Oakland A's in 5.2 innings while allowing zero earned runs.

I'm thinking what you're thinking: The term "quality start" could use a tweak or two.

Even still, quality starts are something of a specialty for Chen. He's logged 12 of them, tied for the most among AL rookies with Parker and Diamond. The advantage Chen has on them is that he's pitched 135.1 innings, second only to Tommy Milone among AL rookies.

Chen's not the best rookie in the AL this year. But thus far, he's earned the right to be called the AL's best rookie pitcher.

TOP NEWS

Washington Nationals v Los Angeles Angels

Bleacher Report1w

Bleacher Report1w

3. Will Middlebrooks, 3B, Boston Red Sox

4 of 7

Last Week: No. 3

Will Middlebrooks finished July on a tear, hitting .328/.339/.525 with three homers and 10 RBI in 16 games immediately following the All-Star break.

True to his hot-and-cold form, however, Middlebrooks has cooled down in August. Entering Wednesday's action, he was hitting just .190/.227/.333 in seven games (five starts). His numbers in August would look even worse if not for his pinch-hit three-run homer on Tuesday night.

None of this is to say that Middlebrooks isn't having a strong rookie season, of course. He's been up and down ever since the Red Sox called him up in early May, but he has yet to fall into a truly deep slump.

Because of that, his numbers for the season remain solid. He's hitting .292/.322/.510 with 14 homers and 51 RBI. The only AL rookie with more home runs than Middlebrooks is Mike Trout, and only Trout and Yoenis Cespedes have driven in more runs.

According to FanGraphs, Middlebrooks has a weighted on-base average of .356. That's good for third among AL rookie hitters, and Middlebrooks and Cespedes are tied for second in WAR behind Trout.

And as I like to point out every week, the good news for the Red Sox is that Middlebrooks has a higher WAR than Kevin Youkilis. Making way for the kid was the right thing to do.

2. Yoenis Cespedes, OF, Oakland A's

5 of 7

Last Week: No. 2

Yoenis Cespedes was even hotter than Middlebrooks immediately following the All-Star break, hitting .423/.461/.718 with five home runs and 18 RBI in 17 games. The A's were victorious in 13 of those 17 games.

Cespedes has cooled in August. He's hitting .353 so far this month, but all his hits have been singles, and he has yet to drive in a run.

To be fair, Cespedes has been slowed by a sore wrist. And so it goes for him. He's either clobbering the ball or he's trying to play through nagging injuries that make it very tough for him to clobber the ball.

As long as Cespedes is in the lineup, though, the A's are happy. They're 47-30 when he plays and 12-21 when he doesn't.

That's part of the reason why I have Cespedes ranked over Middlebrooks, even though their home run and RBI totals are just about even (they both have 14 homers and Cespedes has just three more RBI than Middlebrooks).

Aside from that, it's a simple matter of Cespedes being the better overall hitter between the two of them. His .308/.366/.521 triple-slash line trumps that of Middlebrooks. According to FanGraphs, Cespedes also holds a significant edge in wOBA at .382.

What's scary is that this is just year one of the Cespedes experience. He wasn't supposed to be putting up numbers like these until much later.

1. Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels

6 of 7

Last Week: No. 1

We can keep this discussion brief.

Trout is hitting .346/.409/.601 with a 1.009 OPS, 20 homers, 60 RBI, 87 runs and 36 stolen bases. He leads the AL in average, runs and stolen bases, and he ranks second in slugging and OPS.

Per FanGraphs, Trout leads all AL hitters with a .442 wOBA and all major leaguers with a 6.9 WAR.

He's on pace for a 30/30 season, and it's worth keeping in mind that he didn't get called up to the majors until the end of April.

Trout could go hitless for the rest of the season, and the AL Rookie of the Year award would probably still be his.