Three Baltimore Orioles Win Sporting News 2023 MLB Awards
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A 101 win season and winning arguably the toughest division in Baseball is bound to give you a couple of awards. On Thursday the Sporting News released their list of MLB Award winners. The Sporting News MLB Award has been done since 1936 and is voted on by players, managers and executives.
This year’s AL Rookie of the Year went to shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Henderson in his first year was a huge boost for the Orioles. He had a .255 batting average, a .325 OBP, a .489 OPS and an .814 SLG. Henderson totaled 28 home runs and drove in 82 RBIs while tallying 100 runs scored himself. In advanced statistics, he is valued with a 6.3 WAR and his BABIP is a .308. Defensively he played 584.2 innings at shortstop and 594.2 innings at third base. His fielding percentage at shortstop was a .969 with a .962% when playing at third base.
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Sporting News’ AL Manager of the Year went to Brandon Hyde for the second consecutive year. The two consecutive awards make sense if you simply look at the Orioles’ records from 2021 to this season. In 2021, the Orioles finished with a record of 52-101 putting them in last place in the AL East and 48 games away from the first place Tampa Bay Rays. The beginning of 2022 seemed like a continuation of 2021 as the Orioles started 16-24 in the first 40 games. If things stayed that way they were projected for a 65-97 season, which would have been the team’s sixth straight losing season. The addition of Adley Rutschman as well as Gunnar Henderson would help propel the team to finish with a 83-79 record to move to fourth place in the AL East. For this season, many expected the Orioles to play well but in the tough AL East to get forgotten about at least until next season. Hyde was able to lead the team to their first AL East division title since 2014.
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The final award by the Sporting News was for the AL Executive of the Year which went to General Manager Mike Elias. Elias was brought into the organization in 2018, and his main objective was to rebuild the team via the Draft. Interesting enough, his first two picks in the 2019 Draft were Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson. 2020 top draft picks Heston Kjerstad and Jordan Westburg have made their way to the big leagues while 2021 top pick Colton Cowser made his way up as well. There still lies their 2022 number one draft pick Jackson Holliday, who worked his way up from Class-A ball to Triple-A. With this youth movement, Elias has the Orioles having one of the lowest payrolls in the MLB. For that low of a payroll and to be able to win 101 games is no easy feat and for Elias and his Orioles, they hope it can soon bring home championships to the city of Baltimore.
