Yankees pitcher Luis Gil, Box-Toppers’ choice for 2024 American League Rookie of the Year, was also voted winner of the honor by baseball writers Monday.
Box-Toppers Rookie of the Year ballot
Here is a look at Box-Toppers’ 2024 Rookie of the Year ballot selections for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) awards. The ballot requires votes out to five places in each leagues' Rookie of the Year.Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2024.
| AL Rookie of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Luis Gil | Yankees | 17.4 |
| 2 | Max Schuemann | Athletics | 5.0 |
| 3 | Keith Colt | Tigers | 5.0 |
| 4 | Jhonkensy Noel | Guardians | 5.0 |
| 5 | Wilyer Abreu | Red Sox | 4.5 |
| NL Rookie of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Shota Imanaga | Cubs | 20.7 |
| 2 | Paul Skenes | Pirates | 13.0 |
| 3 | Jackson Chourio | Brewers | 5.7 |
| 4 | Jackson Merrill | Padres | 5.0 |
| 5 | Tobias Myers | Brewers | 10.0 |
While Rookie of the Year is primarily a batter's award, pitchers are eligible to win and have won in recent seasons—Devin Williams of the Brewers in 2020 and Michael Fulmer of the Tigers in 2016. Pitchers have won the award in both leagues in the same season four times—1952, 1976, 1981 and most recently in 2011, when Rays pitcher Jeremy Hellickson won the AL award and Braves pitcher Craig Kimbrel won the NL award. The Rookie of the Year Award was established in 1947.
But Paul Skenes of the Pirates, who won the National League Rookie of the Year honor, was second among Box-Toppers’ top three choices for top NL rookie. Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga, Box-Toppers’ choice for top NL rookie, finished fourth in voting.
The top rookie awards were announced Monday, chosen by a vote of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
AL Rookie of the Year
Gil won the award, receiving 15 of the 30 first-place votes (see AL voting chart). He earned 17.4 Box-Toppers points in 2024, first among AL rookies, second among AL pitchers and sixth among all players.
While Gil was Box-Toppers’ runaway winner for top AL rookie—no other rookie had even one-third of Gil’s point total—baseball writers saw it as a much closer race, with Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser claiming second place with nearly as many first-place votes (13) and finishing only five voting points behind Gil.
Gil got off to a hot start but struggled in the second half of the season, earning only 4.0 of his 17.4 points after June 4. Voters often discount players who slump in the second half of the season no matter how consequential they were in the first half. Gil did so well in those first two months of the season that Box-Toppers even has him in second-place on our AL Cy Young Award ballot. But Gil is not a finalist for that award and is unlikely to garner many—if any—votes despite his hot start.
Behind Gil and Cowser in AL Rookie of the Year voting was Austin Wells of the Yankees. Neither Cowser nor Wells were among Box-Toppers’ top five AL rookies. Cowser earned 2.5 Box-Toppers points in 2024, 23rd among AL rookies and 87th among AL batters. Wells earned 2.5 Box-Toppers points in 2024, 24th among AL rookies and 89th among AL batters.
Two other players received first place votes in AL rookie voting and finished fourth and fifth on the writers’ ballot:
Athletics closing pitcher Mason Miller finished fourth. He earned 5.0 Box-Toppers points in 2024, tied for fifth among NL rookies, seventh among AL closing pitchers.
Guardians reliever Cade Smith finished fifth. He earned 2.0 Box-Toppers points in 2024, tied for 26th among AL rookies, 32nd among AL middle relievers.
Two other AL rookies also received votes—Wilyer Abreu of the Red Sox (sixth) earned 4.5 Box-Toppers points in 2024, 12th among AL rookies and Wyatt Langford of the Rangers (seventh) earned 4.5 points, 13th among AL rookies.
NL Rookie of the Year
Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes was voted National League Rookie of the Year by baseball writers, receiving 23 of 30 first-place votes (see NL voting chart).
Skenes earned 13.0 Box-Toppers points in 2024, second among NL rookies, 10th among NL pitchers and 23rd among all players. Box-Toppers voted him second on its NL rookie ballot.
Box-Toppers’ choice for the award, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga, finished fourth in NL rookie voting. Imanaga led NL rookies with 20.7 Box-Toppers points in 2024, fourth among all players and third among NL pitchers.
Some voters might have been reluctant to vote for Imanaga as the top rookie since he is 31 years old and spent eight seasons pitching in Japan’s professional league. But he is new to the Major Leagues and is technically a rookie.
Skenes got off to a slower start in 2024, starting the season in the minor leagues and did not make his Major League debut until May 11, by which point Imanaga already had earned 7.7 Box-Toppers points. From the time of Skenes’ Box-Toppers debut (May 17), both pitchers earned the same Box-Toppers point total for the remainder of the season—13.0.
The other two players receiving votes as NL Rookie of the Year:
Jackson Merrill of the Padres, who finished second in voting, earned 5.0 Box-Toppers points in 2024, 14th among NL rookies and 34th among NL batters.
Jackson Chourio of the Brewers, who finished third in voting, earned 5.7 Box-Toppers points in 2024 12th among NL rookies and 22nd among NL batters.
IBWAA rookie voting
Box-Toppers votes in the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) Rookie of the Year voting. Here are the internet writers’ top rookie choices
American League
1st Place: Colton Cowser, Orioles—111 points
2nd Place: Luis Gil, Yankees—73 points
3rd Place: Austin Wells, Yankees—55 points
National League:
1st Place: Paul Skenes, Pirates—167 points
2nd Place: Jackson Merrill, Padres—110 points
3rd Place: Jackson Chourio, Brewers—28 points
IBWAA members include more than 800 baseball writers and content creators. Voting for full-season awards takes place prior to the start of the postseason each year, with selections announced in November.
About Box-Toppers
Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
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Related
Box-Toppers 2024 player rankings leaders
Box-Toppers points leaders are finalists in 5 of 6 major postseason player awards
List of Rookie of the Year winners since 1947 from BaseballReference.com.
A Box-Toppers look at past Rookie of the Year voting:
2023: Box-Toppers’ top AL rookie Henderson wins AL Rookie of the Year; top NL rookie Outman finishes 3rd
2022: Box-Toppers’ top AL rookie Rodriguez wins AL Rookie of the Year; top NL rookie Strider finishes 2nd
2021: Box-Toppers’ top-ranked rookies Dalbec, Rogers, lose Rookie of the Year honors to Arozarena, India
2020: Short season limited opportunity to shine for newcomers
2019: Padres’ Chris Paddack, Box-Toppers’ dominant rookie for 2019, receives no Rookie of the Year votes; Alonso, Alvarez receive rookie honors.
2018: Ronald Acuna Jr., Shohei Ohtani, who led rookies in Box-Toppers points, win awards.
2017: Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, who led league rookies in Box-Toppers points, win awards.
2016: Box-Toppers disagrees with writers’ unanimous choice for Corey Seager as NL Rookie of the Year.
American League Rookie of the Year voting
Yankees pitcher Luis Gil, voted AL Rookie of the Year, was also Box-Toppers choice for the award. He earned 17.4 Box-Toppers points in 2024, most among AL rookies. Here is the order of finish for the AL rookie award. Also shown are the votes each player received from baseball writers for first, second and third place, plus their overall voting point totals. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2024 and their Box-Toppers rank among AL players with rookie status.| AL rookies | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points | BTP | Rank† | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luis Gil | Yankees | pi sp | 15 | 10 | 1 | 106 | 17.4 | 1 |
| 2 | Colton Cowser | Orioles | lf cf rf | 13 | 11 | 3 | 101 | 2.5 | 23 |
| 3 | Austin Wells | Yankees | ca | 3 | 8 | 17 | 2.5 | 24 | |
| 4 | Mason Miller | Athletics | pi cp | 1 | 2 | 5 | 16 | 5.0 | T5 |
| 5 | Cade Smith | Guardians | pi mr | 1 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 2.0 | T26 |
| 6 | Wilyer Abreu | Red Sox | rf | 2 | 5 | 11 | 4.5 | 12 | |
| 7 | Wyatt Langford | Rangers | lf | 1 | 4 | 7 | 4.5 | 13 |
† Rookie of the Year candidates are ranked among their league’s rookies in Box‑Toppers points. There were 74 AL players with rookie status who earned Box-Toppers points in 2024.
National League Rookie of the Year voting
Paul Skenes of the Pirates was voted NL Rookie of the Year. However, Box-Toppers’ choice for top NL rookie is Shota Imanaga of the Cubs, who finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting. Here is the order of finish for the NL rookie award. Also shown are the votes each player received from baseball writers for first, second and third place, plus their overall voting point totals. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2024 and their Box-Toppers rank among NL players with rookie status.| NL rookies | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points | BTP | Rank† | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Skenes | Pirates | pi sp | 23 | 7 | 136 | 13.0 | 2 | |
| 2 | Jackson Merrill | Padres | cf | 7 | 23 | 104 | 5.0 | 14 | |
| 3 | Jackson Chourio | Brewers | rf lf | 26 | 26 | 5.7 | 12 | ||
| 4 | Shota Imanaga | Cubs | pi sp | 4 | 4 | 20.7 | 1 |
† Rookie of the Year candidates are ranked among their league’s rookies in Box‑Toppers points. There were 77 NL players with rookie status who earned Box-Toppers points in 2024.