Tom Brennan: Will NL ROY Winner Be CARSON BENGE? AND OVERTURNED BY THE NUMBERS

DARRYL STRAWBERRY WON ROOKIE OF THE YEAR WITH 2.6 WAR 

So, it seems many folks are conceding NL ROY to Cincy’s Sal Stewart.

But why? I certainly am not.

I looked at his WAR vs. Carson Benge’s WAR, just before the season ended, on Baseball Reference:

Stewart? 1.9 WAR.  Kind of low, I’d say.

Gaudy Stewart HR and RBI stats, to be sure, but…just 1.9 WAR.

Those who vote consider a player’s WAR quite heavily, I believe. 

Sal’s is low.

Benge? A much higher 4.2 WAR; probably a frothy 5.0 from late April on.

What a last 5 months he’s had! 

Compare to Darryl p’s 2.6 WAR and smile for Benge.

JJ Wetherholt?

He was the early favorite, but he hit a sickly .210 in the second half. His 4.4 WAR is due to his excellent glove work at 2B. WAR defensively is easier to accumulate in the infield than in the “fewer chances” outfield.

Ozzie Smith was fleet afoot, and decent, hitter, who accumulated much of his 77 WAR doing utterly remarkable things with the glove at shortstop.

So, JJW wins first half ROY, for sure, but not full year ROY, IMO. 

He faded hard.

Nolan McLean?

He ended up with 3.0 WAR, going 13-10, 3.16 ERA with 194 Ks in 180 innings. His WAR would probably be higher if he got more offensive support and ended up 16-7 instead.

In many years, McLean would win, but this is a TOUGH year. 

I’d sadly say no. 

Kind of like Jerry Koosman (6.3 WAR) being edged out by Johnny Bench (5.0 WAR) in 1968. 

Kooz, man…Kooz was the victim of a crime, I tell ya.

AJ Ewing?

He is an afterthought here, but in other years, he’d be ROY. Why?

He has a remarkable 3.1 WAR in just 3/4 of a season’s worth of games.

Compare also to Darryl’s 2.6.

Zac Thornton?

He deserves big kudos with his 1.7 WAR in essentially half a season. Wow.

Lastly, Nate Lavender?

The lefty pen ace with a 0.9 WAR in just 21 relief outings? Amazing.

So, the 5 named Mets rookies combined for roughly 3.5 season-equivalents.

And combined compiled 12.9 WAR in those 3.5 seasons’ worth of play.

That averages out to a robust 3.7 WAR per “FTE season”, tremendous, yes?

2026? The best ever year for Mets rookie performance, IMO, and THAT saved the Mets 2026 season from absolute calamity. 

The future is SO BRIGHT with these 5.

My choice for Mets’ team MVP?  

THE ROOKIES.

Soto in an injury-damaged 2026 had 3.2 WAR, just as a comparison.

ROOKIES ROCK IN METSVILLE.  SO GOOD!

NOT MISSED

Luisangel Acuna with the 2026 White Sox after dealt away for achy Luis Robert? 

A substandard .229/.261.276.

He stole 18 bases…but I do not want a utility guy who puts up a slash line like that on the NY Mets. Glad they traded him. 

“OVERTURNED UPON APPEAL”

We hear that term often these days…a lower court makes a nutty ruling…overturned by higher courts.

In baseball? 

I read this on Facebook:

“MLB Balls & Strikes Calls Overturned:

2000-2025: 0

2026: 5,686

“Twenty-six years of zero overturned calls. 

“Then the pitch challenge system arrived, and umpires are getting exposed in ways the sport has never seen.

“The uncomfortable truth? Those mistakes didn't start in 2026. They've been happening for decades with zero accountability. The challenge system didn't create bad umpiring. It just made it visible for the first time.

“Some umpires are holding up under the scrutiny. Others? The data has been brutal. Patterns are emerging. Names are being attached to numbers. And for the first time in baseball history, the quality of umpiring is being measured in real time.

“5,686 wrong calls. Overturned. One season. A lot to fix in the umpire side.  

“Baseball is a game of inches. 

“In 2026, those inches are finally being called correctly”.

Back to me: 

This excepted above blurb, of course, still significantly understates the errors in calling balls and strikes. Why? 

Because, if every single pitch of the season was called by the machines, the number of wrong ump calls might quadruple. 

The 5,686 overturned calls were after a player appealed a given pitch. 

Many questionable call pitches that are not formally challenged may be called incorrectly, but are not challenged due to appeal-per-game limits.

Wouldn’t you like to see the real error number, both those verified in-game following appeal, AND all of the other errors not overturned due to non-appeal? 

I sure would.

The cameras are there and record every pitch. So, the data s/b extractable. 

Would Tom Glavine be in the Hall of Fame if every pitch he ever threw in the big leagues was called by an error-free camera? I doubt it.

That guy lived his whole career getting (way) outside balls called strikes.