There is a clear-cut favorite to win the AL ROY of the award. There is absolutely nothing that could occur that would change this. It does, however, bear mentioning the other candidates for the award as they too have put together solid rookie campaigns.

The AL rookie crop this year has been good. Worth including in this discussion are starting pitchers Scott Diamond for the Twins and Wei-Yin Chen for the Orioles, who have both been impressive. Amongst the AL rookies vying for the hardware, there are three front-runners that emerge: Yoenis Cespedes, Yu Darvish and, of course, Mike Trout. In any other year, one where Mike Trout isn’t playing, Cespedes and Darvish would have made it interesting for voters.

Yoenis Cespedes
The Athletics left fielder started the season slowly, then missed 31 games due to injury in the middle of the season. Since then Cespedes has been playing well. He’ll finish the year with 20 HR and close to 80 RBIs, to go with a .290/.351/.491 rip line and a 2.0 WAR. Unfortunately September has brought a slump, and with the A’s making a playoff push, they need Cespedes to start swinging the bat again.

All in all a solid rookie campaign for this Cuban import. I think with the A’s playing meaningful baseball, Cespedes should garner some attention. The stretch run here could earn Cespedes enough second-place votes to finish second in the voting.

Yu Darvish
At the end of June, Darvish’s record was 10-4, since then he is 5-5 for the Rangers. Darvish just isn’t fooling anybody at this point in the season, as the scouting reports have caught up with him. If he hadn’t won four of his last five starts, his record would be mighty disappointing given his start to the season. The Rangers are going to need Darvish to regain his form if they are to challenge in the ALCS.

So many people had Darvish pegged for this award, particularly after the first month of the season, where he was a perfect 4-0 with a 2.18 ERA. Many, however, saw Darvish go 3-2 with a 4.50 ERA, and even more impactful to Darvish’s ROY chances was the arrival of a young Angels center fielder.

Mike Trout
What really needs to be said here? Trout is the runaway winner of this award. In the process of having one of the best rookie seasons ever, he propelled himself into serious AL MVP consideration. Currently he’s first in the AL in runs and stolen bases, second in batting average and OPS, fourth overall in slugging and a likely 30-30 season for good measure. While we are handing out awards to this young man, the MVP should be coming his way, as well as a Gold Glove for his stellar defence. Enough said!

AL ROY SHOULD BE: Mike Trout
AL ROY WILL BE: Mike Trout, a complete no-brainer.