Julio Rodriguez facetimes Michael Harris II after both win Rookie of the Year awards
To no one's surprise, the MLB Rookie of the Year award went to two young stars who have shone brightly this entire season. Julio Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners won the American League ROTY whereas the National League's ROTY was Michael Harris II of the Atlanta Braves.
After the two were announced as winners, they shared a wholesome moment where they congratulated each other via FaceTime. Initially, it felt like Julio Rodriguez was filming a video message for his compatriot, but the Mariners player was able to get Michael Harris II on a video call.
Someone from Julio's location was able to capture the video call as the official handle of the MLB proceeded to upload it on their Twitter handle.
Respect from one ROY to another!
Julio Rodríguez FaceTimed Michael Harris II last night after they both won. https://t.co/ZHA95Ny69m
Julio Rodriguez and Michael Harris II convincing ROTY winners
In terms of voting for the ROTY award, both Julio Rodriguez and Michael Harris II turned out to be convincing winners in their respective leagues.
Julio won the AL Rookie of the Year award by quite a margin. He collected a total of 29 out of 30 first-place votes. Adley Rutschmann of the Baltimore Orioles was the only other player to receive the solitary first place vote.
Rodriguez collected a total of 148 points, which was 80 points ahead of Rutschmann at 68 and 104 ahead of Cleveland Guardians’ Steven Kwan who came in third with 44.
In the National League, Michael Harris II had a tougher battle, that too with his own teammate Spencer Strider. He had an advantage in the first place finishes, securing 22 out of the 30 with Strider collecting the other. But in the overall points tally it was fairly close, with Michael edging out Strider, 134 to 108.
So much was their dominance of the past season that the next best in the NL was St. Louis Cardinals rookie Brendan Donovan with 22.
Julio Rodriguez led all rookies in HRs (28), bWAR (6.0) and fWAR (5.3), OPS (.854), wRC+ (146) and total bases (260). He matched legendary Mike Trout as the only other player in AL/NL history with at least 25 HRs, 25 SBs and an .800 OPS in their rookie season.
Michael Harris II finished 2022 with 19 HRs, 20 SBs, a 4.4 offensive bWAR and 1.3 defensive bWAR having only debuted for the Braves in late May. Meanwhile, Harris and Spencer became the eighth set of teammates to finish 1-2 in Rookie of the Year voting.