Dylan Beavers picked up an odd little footnote in the American League Rookie of the Year voting, and it’s the kind of result that makes you stop and blink twice.
The Orioles outfielder finished tied for 12th in the AL race after receiving one fifth-place vote from one of the 30 voters, Andrew Destin of The Associated Press. That lone vote was enough to put Beavers on the board even though the award went almost entirely to the Tigers’ Kevin McGonigle, who won in near-unanimous fashion. The Reds’ Sal Stewart took the NL honor.
There’s no denying the strange optics here. Beavers now gets “ROY - 12” attached to his 2026 stat line on Baseball Reference, and that part is permanent.
But the season itself did not line up with that vote. He hit nine home runs, posted a .680 OPS, missed significant time because of injury, and finished with negative WAR from both Baseball Reference (-0.5) and FanGraphs (-0.2).
By FanGraphs WAR, Beavers checked in as the 55th-best rookie in the AL. That puts him behind players such as Denzer Guzman, Yohendrick Pinango, Sam Aldegheri, and Ethan Pecko, and tied with Trey Gibson. He was also only the fourth-best rookie on the Orioles, trailing Samuel Basallo (0.6 WAR), Anthony Nunez (0.6), and Alex Hoppe (0.3).
Destin, who is currently the Seattle Seahawks beat reporter for The Athletic, has not explained the ballot choice publicly, at least not that I could find. And to be fair, these awards are not easy to sort through.
Voters often see one team closely all year and only fragments of the rest of the league, so ranking everyone can get messy fast. Still, Beavers as a fifth-place pick is a head-scratcher.
That said, this isn’t meant as a swipe at Beavers as a player. The Orioles would love for him to grow into a reliable corner outfielder and a steady part of the lineup, and that future is still there for him.
But even Beavers would probably admit his rookie year did not go the way he wanted. For one voter, though, it was enough.
On the Orioles front, there was also Cal Ripken’s reaction to Pete Alonso: “It was a fun year to get to know him, but even more fun to watch him”
And in other Orioles chatter, one mailbag item on Jeremiah Jackson included the line: “I honestly believe he was only behind Pete Alonso as the MVP of the team in batting average.”
Elsewhere, there was a look at Gunnar Henderson’s three very different seasons since 2024, along with a note that new Orioles GM Jared Banner believes the club can turn Henderson into the AL MVP and a World Series champion.
For birthdays and history, there isn’t an Orioles player born on Nov. 10. The closest consolation is Eric Thames, who spent 41 games in the Orioles’ minor league system in 2013 without getting a call-up and later played six major league seasons with four other teams.
And on this date in 2015, Manny Machado won his second career Gold Glove in just his third full major league season. He has not added another one since, despite remaining an elite defender for much of his career. He was a finalist in the AL at third base in 2016 and 2017, losing to Adrian Beltré and Evan Longoria, and later finished as an NL finalist with the Padres in 2020 and 2021, when Nolan Arenado beat him out both times.
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