Monday marks the final Grapefruit League game in Florida for the Yankees, and thus means it's time for the team to once again hand out the James P. Dawson award for the most outstanding rookie in camp...and the winner is no surprise.
Less than 24 hours after he found out he would be the Yankees' shortstop, Anthony Volpe was announced as the winner of the 2023 Dawson Award, which is voted on by Yankees beat writers, and he will receive a watch courtesy of Betteridge Jewelers in conjunction with the honor.
Volpe, 21, "kicked the door in" on the Yankees' spring shortstop competition, slashing .314/.417/.647 with 13 runs, 10 extra-base hits, 5 RBI, 8 walks, and five stolen bases in 17 games so far. The No. 1 prospect in the Yankees organization according to Baseball America and MLB Pipeline (and the No. 14 and No. 5 overall prospect by those two outlets, respectively), will now hope to become the third winner to go on to win AL Rookie of the Year, following Tony Kubek in 1957 and Tom Tresh in 1962.
Per the Yankees, the award was established in honor of James P. Dawson (1896-1953), who began a 45-year career with The New York Times as a copy boy in 1908. Eight years later, he became boxing editor and covered boxing and baseball until his death during spring training in 1953. The first award was presented to Norm Siebern by manager Casey Stengel at the conclusion of the 1956 camp, and it has been presented every year since with five exceptions (1971, 1989, 1995, 1999, and 2000).
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Two winners of the honor, Tony Kubek in 1957 and Tom Tresh in 1962, went on to win the American League “Rookie of the Year” Award. The Dawson Award first was presented to rookie Norm Siebern by Manager Casey Stengel in St. Petersburg, Fla., at the conclusion of spring training in 1956. New York Yankees beat writers vote on the winner.
Clarke Schmidt won the award in 2022, and previous winners of note include Willie Randolph, Don Mattingly, Jorge Posada, and Gleyber Torres.
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