Pete Alonso became the sixth player in Mets history to take the National League's Rookie of the Year distinction Monday night.
Alonso burst onto the scene in his first season in New York. He led the league with 53 home runs, four more than his closest competitor and was the only Mets player to record more than 100 RBIs in 2019 (120). The Mets slugger, who added the Home Run Derby title in a captivating year, seemed like an unanimous choice to be named the NL's top rookie.
When the Baseball Writers Association of America released its results, Alonso received 29 first place votes but had a glaring "1" under the second place column. The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly opted to vote for Braves ace Mike Soroka, who finished with 25 second place and two third place votes.
WFAN's Boomer Esiason felt Alonso's breakout season, where he set a Mets franchise home run record, warranted a unanimous decision from the writers.
"They should take his vote away from him," Esiason said. "I'm not saying his name. That's it. His 15 seconds of fame are over as far as I'm concerned. If you want to say his name, you can say his name. I'm not saying his name anymore."
Baggarly explained his reasoning in selecting Soroka, who finished 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA, over Alonso in a column, claiming Soroka displayed "another skill at an elite level" and what he did for the Braves in 2019 was more impressive than what Alonso had done — Soroka's ability to limit the total of home runs allowed.
Houston's Yordan Alvarez seized all 30 votes in the AL Rookie of the Year race.
Gregg Giannotti didn't agree with the snub, either.
"I just know that this was such a today's media thing where guy votes for another player who is not the obvious choice and then writes about it behind a pay wall," Giannotti said. "He writes for The Athletic. So this guy's like, 'Hey, don't be mad at me. Here's my explanation for doing the dumb thing that's going to get me attention so I can buy subscriptions.' It was the most 2019 media thing on earth."
Esiason and Giannotti aren't alone on this topic. Baggarly received a bit of backlash from Mets fans, who saw Jacob deGrom snubbed from the unanimous Cy Young Award decision in 2018.
"These guys don't even want to defend themselves," Giannotti said. "It's just because this guy knew Mets fans would care more about it probably than Astros fans ... I didn't read what he wrote about him or his explanation but I didn't need to ... We all know why this guy did what he did. It doesn't matter.
"What matters is that Pete Alonso is the man. He's going to be here forever. He won the Rookie of the Year - hit 53 home runs. He's everything you want in a young player. He's talking about winning championships ... it's just perfect and we'll see what (Mets general manager) Brodie (Van Wagenen) does now to support him and this roster."
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