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JJ Wetherholt robbed of NL Rookie of the Year by Sal Stewart due to archaic narrative

Man, the voters really dropped the ball on this one.
ByJosh Jacobs
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Aug 19, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart (27) and St. Louis Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt (26) talk during the ninth inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Tanner Pearson-Imagn Images
Aug 19, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart (27) and St. Louis Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt (26) talk during the ninth inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Tanner Pearson-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

To be fair, there were a lot of worthy candidates to win National League Rookie of the Year this year, but Sal Stewart was not one of them. JJ Wetherholt should have taken home the award for the St. Louis Cardinals, or at least someone like Carson Benge or TJ Rumfield should have won it over Stewart.

But alas, we apparently still live in an age where voting for these big, historic awards is often hyper-focused on stats that tell a very incomplete story about a player

You know it's bad when Lance Brozdowski, who covers the Cubs with Marquee Network (though he does incredible work covering all of MLB, so I'm not at all surprised that he had this take), is openly congratulating the voters who did not give the nod to Stewart's RBI-centric campaign.

Sal Stewart should not have finished about JJ Wetherholt in Rookie of the Year voting

People should know by now that there are far better ways to measure the impact of a player than RBI totals or OPS stats, and yet, here we are!

Stewart slugged 32 home runs with 112 RBI in his rookie campaign, which are indeed impressive numbers, but came while playing 81 games in Great American Smallpark and grading out as a bad defender (at a non-premium position) and a bad baserunner. Wetherholt's numbers weren't as slashy, but he finished with over double the fWAR (4.3) of Stewart (2.0) because of his above-average offense, incredible defense, and very good base running. Oh, and he was that much more valuable in 23 fewer games!

Despite Stewart's slash line looking so much better than Wetherholt's, he only graded out as 11% better at the plate than the Cardinals' second baseman. Yes, driving in runs is important, but opportunities and the ballpark do play a significant role in that production.

Did you know Wetherholt had a 126 wRC+ with runners in scoring position in 2026? Sure, Stewart's 137 wRC+ is a bit better, but again, the award is about more than offense - it's an entire player's profile. I'd much rather have the guy who plays excellent defense and runs the bases really well and is a bit worse offensively than the guy who only provides value at the plate and really wasn't even one of the best hitters in the sport, even with that being his best too.

Oh, and then there's the fact that Wetherholt played half of his games at Busch Stadium, which suppressed offensive production in a major way this year and resulted in a 77 wRC+ in his games there this year. Guess what happened when Wetherholt played away from Busch Stadium? He led all second basemen in the National League with a 123 wRC+.

FanGraph's own Ben Clemens made a strong case for Wetherholt to win the award at the end of the season, and he too conceded that Benge was a great candidate as well, but made the similar point that Stewart was just not the right pick this year.

If Benge had won the award, I would have tipped my cap to that choice. But man, Stewart's case was built solely on numbers that carry way too much meaning, ignoring every other factor of his game, and the smaller gap in offensive value, even with Stewart's RBI and HR totals.

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