The AL Rookie of the Year for 2018 was recently announced as Shohei Ohtani. Which Boston Red Sox prospects could win the award in the coming years?
The last time a member of the Boston Red Sox won the American League Rookie of the Year award was in 2007. That of course, was second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels took home the honor in 2018.
This raises the simple question – do the Red Sox have any viable Rookie of the Year candidates coming up in the next few seasons?
Boston isn’t exactly dominant when it comes to Rookie of the Year winners. Since the inception of the honor in 1947, the Red Sox have had only six winners. Pedroia is joined by Nomar Garciaparra (1997), as well as Fred Lynn (1975) and Carlton Fisk (1972) to win the award in the last 50 years. Don Schwall (1961) and Walt Dropo (1950) also brought the ROY to Boston.
History might not be in their favor, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change. When looking at their prospects, it’s not impossible to believe the Rookie of the Year award could come back to Boston soon.
There are quite a few possibilities within the next year-or-so with the Red Sox having multiple top-tier prospects on the cusp of the Majors.
With that in mind, for the purpose of this article we’re going to stick with a short window. Obviously there are some prospects that have the potential to take home the award in the distant future. Players like Bryan Mata and Triston Casas could be favorites for the award at some point, but they’re still years away from the Majors. Due to that, they won’t be featured in this article – except when I just mentioned them.
This will be strictly prospects that have a realistic chance of making a run at the Rookie of the Year award within the next two years. We’re going to narrow it down even further though and say this is the top-five prospects in the Boston Red Sox system with a chance to win the Rookie of the Year award in the next two seasons.