The Major League Baseball has selected Braves’ outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. as the National League Rookie of the Year and Angels’ pitcher Shohei Ohtani as the American League Rookie of the Year.
Ohtani is just the 4th Japanese-born player to be named rookie of the year. Ohtani has been battling a number of injuries this year and was expected to have Tommy-John surgery on his right elbow, which is his pitching arm, earlier in the season but ultimately waited until the end of September. The 24 year old rookie will miss the 2019 season and won’t be expected to be anywhere near the pitcher’s mound until 2020 as he recovers from surgery.
Ohtani nicknamed “Sho time” pitched 10 games and finished with a 4-2 record pitching, an impressive 3.31 era with 63 strikeouts for the year. More impressively, he batted this year with a .285 batting average and finished the year with 93 hits and earned 59 runs.
The Venezuelan born outfielder Acuna Jr. also had an impressive season. He finished the year with a batting average of .293, 127 hits, 78 earned runs, 26 home runs, and brought in 64 RBI’s. Acuna Jr. also managed to snag 16 stolen bases and finished with a fielding percentage of .974.
Baseball runs in Acuna’s blood as his father and grandfather both played in the minor leagues. His uncle Jose Escobar played for the Cleveland Indians and he currently has four cousins playing baseball as well.