The Major League Baseball Players Association has revealed finalists for end-of-season honors, and Carson Benge is not a finalist for the Outstanding Rookie Award.
The three National League finalists are JJ Wetherholt of the St. Louis Cardinals, Sal Stewart of the Cincinnati Reds and TJ Rumfield of the Colorado Rockies. All three hitters are deserving candidates, but Benge should 100% have been a finalist over Weatherholt.
Benge posted a 4.3 bWAR while Wetherholt had a 4.5 bWAR. Outside of that, Benge had Wetherholt beat across the board. He played more games, had more hits, had more RBIs, had more stolen bases and posted a better batting average, on-base percentage and OPS.
Both were tremendous defenders, but Benge was the better player this year. He did play in more games, which helped his overall numbers, but both made their debuts on opening day. Compared to Stewart, Benge was a much better defender, stole more bases and had a better batting average and on-base percentage. Stewart ranked third in all of baseball in RBIs, so he was certainly a deserving candidate.
Rumfield was pretty much better than Benge across the board offensively, but was not as strong a defender. He certainly deserved to be nominated as well.
Benge had a tremendous rookie season, but the MLBPA is not even giving him a chance to win the Outstanding Rookie Award. However, he could still win the Baseball Writers' Association of America official Rookie of the Year.