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Corey Seager, Michael Fulmer win MLB's Rookie of the Year awards

Mike Oz

When we remember the rookies of the 2016 baseball season, there will be Corey Seager and then there will be everybody else. That’s no diss to any other player, it’s a testament to the great first season Seager had with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

For that, he was named the National League Rookie of the Year on Monday in a unanimous vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Had it been a league-wide award, you can bet Seager would have won that too. He was, simply put, the most impactful rookie in the game by a wide margin. But the AL gets an award too and that vote was a little bit closer.

Detroit Tigers starter Michael Fulmer was the AL winner after an impressive 2016 campaign in which he had one of the best ERAs in the league. Fulmer was the opposite of Seager in that his success was a bit more unexpected, but the Tigers needed it just the same to stay afloat in the AL wild-card race.

Your 2016 Rookie of the Year winners: Corey Seager and Michael Fulmer (Getty Images)
Your 2016 Rookie of the Year winners: Corey Seager and Michael Fulmer (Getty Images)

In the NL, Trea Turner of the Washington Nationals finished second while Kenta Maeda, another Dodger, finished third. In the AL, Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees finished second while Tyler Naquin of the Cleveland Indians finished third.

Seager, 22, showed why the Dodgers deemed him so untouchable as other teams were trying to pry him away in trade talks. Seager hit .308 with 26 homers and 72 RBIs while playing shortstop everyday for the NL West champs.

He was the Dodgers’ best position player — without him, they wouldn’t have won the division — and his 7.5 Wins Above Replacement rating per Fangraphs wasn’t just great for a rookie, it was fifth among all players in the game. That’s why he’s also one of the finalists for NL MVP, which will be announced Thursday.

Here’s the full rundown of votes for the NL:

(BBWAA)
(BBWAA)

The AL award, which was a closer contest, went to Fulmer, the 23-year-old Tigers starter. He came into the season without much hype and became a vital piece of Detroit’s rotation.

Fulmer’s 3.06 ERA was impressive and would have ranked third-best in the league had he thrown enough innings to qualify for the ERA crown — he fell just under the 162-inning threshold, throwing 159.

Fulmer really made himself known in a 10-game stretch that started in late May when he posted a 0.83 ERA. Overall, Fulmer went 11-7 in 26 starts with 132 strikeouts. That was even more important given Detroit’s shaky pitching beyond Cy Young finalist Justin Verlander. Fulmer was the only regular starter other than Verlander to have an ERA under 4.

(BBWAA)
(BBWAA)

Here’s something that makes you want to root for Fulmer: He’s been working as a plumber in the offseason.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!