MacKenzie Gore making strong case for NL Rookie of the Year

Padres top prospect MacKenzie Gore is an early National League Rookie of the Year favorite

Over the first 42 innings of his big-league career, San Diego Padres rookie MacKenzie Gore has a 1.71 ERA and 47 strikeouts. He’s faced 166 batters and only given up 31 hits, eight earned runs, and one homer.

So far, so good.

On Sunday, he made his longest start thus far, seven shutout innings of two-hit ball. His nine strikeouts were the second-most of his burgeoning career (he K’d 10 Cincinnati Reds back in April).

Earlier this week, MLB.com named him the top “early Rookie of the Year frontrunner” for the National League after a poll handed him 24 first-place votes, ahead of Seiya Suzuki (Cubs), who received 18 votes. Juan Yepez (Cardinals), Luis González (Giants), and Hunter Greene (Reds) also received a couple of votes apiece. If Gore can keep pitching at his current level of excellence,

Can MacKenzie Gore become the first starting pitcher in Padres history to win NL Rookie of the Year?

In over half a century of Padres baseball, only two players have ever won Rookie of the Year.

Neither was a starting pitcher, and neither was Tony Gwynn. He lost out to Steve Sax in 1982. The first Padres NL ROY was reliever Butch Metzger in 1976; the second was catcher Benito Santiago in 1987.

Starting pitchers don’t win Rookie of the Year very often. Shohei Ohtani slugged and hurled his way to a unanimous selection in 2018, but he’s in a class of his own. The last National League rookies who took home ROY were Jacob deGrom in 2014 and the late Jose Fernandez in 2013.

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