Shohei Ohtani named AL Rookie of the Year by Baseball Digest

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It was the American League's best Sho of the year.

Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Angels' standout two-way sensation, was named Baseball Digest's American League Rookie of the Year by a wide margin Wednesday.

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Ohtani established himself as Baseball’s best dual-threat pitcher-position player in the last century, joining Babe Ruth as the only players in MLB history to hit 15 home runs and pitch 50 innings in a season. They are also the only pair of players ever with 10 pitching appearances and 20 homers in a season. Ohtani reached 20 homers in 91 non-pitching games, the second-fastest Angels rookie to reach 20 HRs (Wally Joyner hit 20 by his 82nd game in 1986).  On the mound, he finished with a 4-2 record and 3.31 earned run average (51.2IP, 19ER) in 10 starts.

Ohtani is the sixth member of the Angels franchise to win the award, joining Mark Clear (1979), Brian Harvey (1988), Tim Salmon (1993), Garret Anderson (1995) and Mike Trout (2012).












The selections were made by the independently-submitted votes of an eight-member (seven-vote) panel of those Baseball Digest contributors who provide the annual division previews as well as Editor Thom Henninger. Ohtani received six of the seven first-place votes with the other going to Miguel Andujar of the New York Yankees. Overall, Ohtani tallied 19 points during the vote while Andujar registered 12.

Major League Baseball will announce the three finalist for the official Rookie of the Year award Monday, November 5 and the winner will be named November 12.