Los Angeles Dodgers Have a Long List of Rookie of the Year Winners
Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager was the unanimous winner of the 2016 NL Rookie of the Year Award and was the 17th Dodger to win it.
In the least-surprising news of baseball award season, shortstop Corey Seager of the Los Angeles Dodgers was the unanimous selection to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. It was a well-deserved award. Seager was more than twice as valuable as the next-best rookie in the NL, with a 7.5 WAR season according to Fangraphs.
This year, Seager hit .308/.365/.512 with 105 runs, 26 home runs, and 72 RBI. He was one of the key reasons the Dodgers won the NL West. He was particularly good while the Dodgers were without Clayton Kershaw for seven weeks during the season. Between Kershaw’s last start before going on the DL in late June and his return from the DL in early September, Seager hit .345/.407/.546.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have a long history of impressive rookies that goes back to the very first Rookie of the Year Award, which was given to Jackie Robinson in 1947, the year he broke baseball’s modern color barrier. Including Seager’s award this year, the Dodgers have 17 Rookies of the Year, by far the most in the National League. The Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds are tied for second-most, with seven each.
The Dodgers seem to collect their Rookie of the Year Awards in bunches. They won four of the first seven awards handed out from 1947 to 1953. Then there was a gap until they won again in 1960, one of three they had during that tumultuous decade. After not having the top rookie for nine years, the Dodgers went on a tear from 1979 to 1982 when they took home the hardware four years in a row. They then went on another nine-year hiatus before returning with a vengeance by collecting five straight awards from 1992 to 1996. Seager is the first Rookie of the Year for the Dodgers since that stretch ended. Here is a closer look at the former Dodgers who have won the Rookie of the Year Award.