Mike Trout and Bryce Harper were named the American League and National League Rookie of the Year awards, respectively, a half-hour apart on Monday.
Trout, 21, was a unanimous pick and the youngest AL rookie to receive the award. The Washington Nationals’ Harper, 20, beat out Arizona pitcher Wade Miley, 112 points to 105 to become the second-youngest winner of the NL rookie award.
“It’s pretty neat,” the 21-year-old Trout said.
Both players learned the voting results when it was announced on television Monday night for the first time.
“My heart was beating a little bit,” Harper said.
Trout received all 28 first-place votes from the AL panel of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The Los Angeles Angels center fielder was the eighth unanimous AL pick and the first since Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria in 2008.
Trout also is among five finalists for the AL MVP Award to be announced Thursday, along with Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers.
“It would just top it off,” Trout said if he won the MVP award.
For the season, he hit .326, which was the second-best in the league to Cabrera’s .330. Trout also had 30 home runs, 83 RBIs, a Major League-leading 129 runs and 49 steals. He joined the elite company of Ted Williams, Mel Ott and Alex Rodriguez as the only players starting as 20-year-olds to hit .320 or higher with 30 or more homers in a season.
Trout received the maximum of 140 points and Yoenis Cespedes came in a distant second receiving 63 points.
Harper received 16 of 32 first-place votes from the NL panel. He batted .270 with 22 homers and 59 RBIs.
Miley of the Arizona Diamondbacks received 12 first-place votes, followed by Cincinnati Reds Todd Frazier with three.
Said Harper: “Every little kid’s dream is to be a big league ballplayer or a doctor or a firefighter or whatever everybody wants to be. (This) was my dream and I wanted to make that dream come true as quickly as possible.”
