Cardinals Masyn Winn completely snubbed from Rookie of the Year voting

To nobody's surprise, Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes won the National League Rookie of the Year award after a historic 2024 season. Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill followed him in a tightly contested race, but notably absent from the final rankings was St. Louis Cardinals rookie shortstop Masyn Winn. This isn't the first time this awards season that Winn was snubbed from awards voting, as he lost out on the Gold Glove to Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar despite leading him in several defensive categories.

Now, Masyn Winn falls short of four other National League rookies as only Jackson Chourio and Shota Imanaga received third-place votes. Chourio definitely put up better offensive numbers than Winn, slashing .275/.327/.464 with a 117 wRC+, but Winn's superior defensive metrics should've garnered him more consideration for third place.

In terms of WAR, Winn finished second amongst NL rookies using Baseball-Reference's formula and fourth using FanGraph's formula. While it's often difficult to distinguish pitchers and position players using WAR, Winn accrued more WAR than Cubs starter Shota Imanaga in 2024 regardless of calculation. According to bWAR, Winn was worth nearly two more wins than the 30-year-old Japanese veteran. While Imanaga had a stellar All-Star first half, he struggled a bit more in the second half. His underlying metrics also indicate he far outperformed his expected results.

What's even more frustrating, is that Winn almost certainly would have earned the American League Rookie of the Year award this season, as none of the trio of Luis Gil, Colton Cowser, and Austin Wells stood out significantly as a frontrunner or a very strong candidate. Masyn Winn certainly didn't deserve to win the National League Rookie of the Year, but his lack of inclusion on the list certainly should draw some questions.

That Shota Imanaga, a veteran with eight years of professional experience overseas, garnered four third-place votes over Masyn Winn, should draw massive scrutiny from baseball fans, especially when two of them came from Chicago Cubs writers. Ultimately, this doesn't make much of a difference to Winn's overall season, but he should've garnered much more attention from the national media.