OPINION: Williams’ Dominant Season Deserved Local Praise

The National League Rookie of the Year voting was far closer than it should have been in 2020, no thanks to the Wisconsin representatives delegation of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWA).

Brewers reliever Devin Williams took home the award in what was regarded by some as a three-horse race between Williams, San Diego’s Jake Cronenworth and Philadelphia’s Alec Bohm. The latter two may have stolen votes from each other with above-average seasons at the plate, finishing tied with 74 points based on the BBWA rating scale. Williams bested the field with his dominant effort on the mound however, tallying 95 points thanks in part to 14 first-place votes out of 30 total.

A synopsis of the ballots cast provides a confusing glimpse at the league-wide perception of Williams. San Diego rep Kyle Glaser left Williams off a ballot that included Bohm, Los Angeles pitcher Dustin May and Cronenworth first through third, while his fellow reporter John Maffei had Bohm, Cronenworth and Williams in that order. West coast bias aside, Philadelphia reporters Jack McCaffery and Scott Lauber alternated Williams and Bohm in their top two, at least showing Williams his due consideration as a top candidate while giving their hometown nominee a slight edge.

Wisconsin’s votes from Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Andrew Wagner of the Wisconsin State Journal were absolutely confounding, as both picked Bohm in first and bumped Williams to third in Haudricourt’s case and second in Wagner’s.

Bohm’s case as a prolific hitter was undeniable, as he tallied a .338 average, 54 hits, four home runs, 23 RBIs and 11 doubles in 44 games played. In a season full of teams struggling offensively, he was a spark plug for the Phillies lineup that still finished 28-32 and missed the playoffs. Cronenworth was a versatile infielder for the Padres, spelling Eric Hosmer, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado all season while accumulating a .285 average, 49 hits, four homers, 20 RBIs and 15 doubles in 54 games.

Neither rookie matched the impact of Williams though, as the Milwaukee hurler tallied a 0.33 ERA with one earned run all season, 53 strikeouts in 27 innings and a mere eight hits and nine walks surrendered in 22 games. Beyond his even being considered for Rookie of the Year, Williams won NL Reliever of the Year and finished seventh in the NL Cy Young race as the only reliever on the list. Bohm and Cronenworth weren’t up for a Gold Glove or Silver Slugger Award, much less MVP.

Both Haudricourt and Wagner alluded in their Twitter defenses of their ballots to the weighting of an everyday player versus a reliever pitching in half of the team’s games. That argument has some merit, but when a season as dominant as Williams’ occurs, you have to also ask “what else could he have done?”