Payton Tolle was not named the American League Rookie of the Year for 2026 tonight. This was expected.
Tolle was great, of course. He was the first Red Sox pitcher under the age of 24 since Dennis Eckersley to make at least 4 starts of at least 6 innings without allowing a single run. He was also the only rookie in baseball history to post a strikeout rate above 28% and a walk rate below 7% while throwing at least 140 innings. And while both of those stats are a little too niche to be taken seriously by most people who would read them, they both point to an undeniable truth: Payton Tolle is really young and really good.
Unfortunately for him, Kevin McGonigle is also really young and really good. He’s even younger than Tolle, in fact, and yet he led the entire American League in bWAR, his 7.1 besting Yordan Alvarez and Bobby Witt, Jr. to round out the top-three. When a rookie is arguably the most valuable player in the entire league, the Rookie of the Year voting is reduced to a mere formality. McGonigle ran roughshod over the league and was justly rewarded.
But let the record show: the Red Sox tried their damndest to get Tolle the award, by which I mean the Red Sox pitching staff completely dominated McGonigle this year. In 5 games against the Sox, McGonigle slashed just .238/.273/.286. That was the third-lowest OPS he put up against any team. Moreover, McGonigle ducked when he had a chance to do damage against Tolle himself, sitting out the first game of an early May series when Tolle was on the bump. Was he merely being platooned against a tough lefty, as left-handed rookies often are, or is he a coward?!?!
Probably the former, but hopefully we get a chance to see a Tolle-McGonigle matchup at some point next season.
