We're closing in on the end of the 2026 regular season in Major League Baseball and some of the individual awards are pretty settled. National League Rookie of the Year, for example, has felt like it was one guy's award to lose for a few weeks. Some news on Wednesday, however, might crack the door open a little bit for a late surge.
The Cardinals have activated second baseman JJ Wetherholt from the injured list, more than two weeks after he went down with right wrist tendinitis. So, with a week and a half left of the regular season, let's look at the top four ROY candidates. All odds are from DraftKings.
The case here is simple: power. Stewart has 31 home runs and 107 RBI. In the case of the RBI, he's just four off the MLB lead and only two rookies in history have ever led the majors in RBI (Ted Williams in 1939 and Walt Dropo in 1950).
Stewart is already the 14th rookie to record at least 30 homers and 100 RBI. This is the type of stuff that a few decades ago would've guaranteed a Rookie of the Year award for anyone and it might well do it now. After all, just look at the odds.
In the era of advanced metrics, however, we cannot discount the chance that someone else supplants Stewart. He only has 2.2 WAR, as his value is solely tied to the power metrics. He's hitting .266/.335/.470 (122 OPS+) with negative defensive value.
He does have 15 stolen bases, but, again, the argument here is pretty much all power. The odds say so right now. The right-hander is 11-9 with a 3.24 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 184 strikeouts in 166 ⅔ innings this season, good for 2.6 WAR.
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