Chase DeLauter had the kind of rookie season that makes you look twice at the ballot.
The Cleveland Guardians outfielder wasn’t among the three Rookie of the Year finalists, but his numbers put him in the conversation. Cleveland knew it had a rookie candidate on its Opening Day roster before the 2026 season even began, and it did - just maybe not the one the team first had in mind.
When the finalists were announced last week, the group was Cleveland’s Parker Messick, Boston’s Peyton Tolle and Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle. Messick and Tolle are tough to line up against DeLauter because they’re pitchers, and pitching tends to get rewarded heavily when a rookie makes a real impact. That was the case here, and both were deserving of the recognition they got.
DeLauter’s case is easier to stack up against McGonigle’s, and the gap is slimmer than it might look at first glance. DeLauter hit .287/.363/.457, while McGonigle finished at .278/.376/.430.
That gave the Guardians rookie a slightly better .820 OPS than McGonigle’s .806. McGonigle did hit two more home runs, 18 to 16, but DeLauter finished with two more doubles.
On the whole, DeLauter also came out ahead in OPS+, posting a 131 compared with McGonigle’s 126.
The big separator was WAR. McGonigle finished at 7.1, while DeLauter was at 3.5.
That likely came down to two things: games played and defensive position. Both players opened the year on their team’s Opening Day roster, but McGonigle appeared in 26 more games.
DeLauter also spent time on the injured list in June and was listed day-to-day multiple times during the season, while McGonigle stayed relatively healthy.
That extra time on the field helped McGonigle build the stronger WAR total.
So yes, the numbers are close. There’s no real dispute about that.
Whether DeLauter should have been a finalist is the kind of question that will always leave room for debate, and there’s a fair case that he belonged there. At the same time, it’s easy to see why the voters went another direction.
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