Why Jackson Merrill should have won NL ROY over Paul Skenes

Recently, Paul Skenes was announced as winning the National League Rookie of the Year award over the Padres Jackson Merrill. Even though Skenes obviously had a great season and maybe even a historical one, we believe that Jackson Merrill should have won. In this article, we will bring multiple reasons on just why Skenes shouldn't of won and why Merrill is more deserving.

This season, Paul Skenes has pitched 133 innings and thrown 170 strikeouts, has had an 11-3 record, a 5.9 WAR a 0.947 WHIP, and a 1.96 ERA. Skenes was in Cy Young talks for most of the year and he finished third in the Cy Young voting. Skenes first started about a month into the season on May 11, and never slowed down since then. He has been electric in his first full season into the league. Skenes also was an All-Star, had a 214 ERA+ and 11.5 SO/9.

Jackson Merrill on the other hand played 156 games this year and had 162 hits, 77 runs, 31 doubles, 6 triples, and 24 home runs. He was also an All-Star and was voted for the Silver Slugger award. Merrill had 90 RBI and 16 stolen bases this season and he led or was top-5 in almost every statistical category. He had batting splits of .292/.326/.500 with an OPS of .826.

So, why do we think that Jackson Merrill should have won the NL ROY over Paul Skenes? The infamous saying is availability is the ability, and Merrill has been available to say the least. His 156 games played is the most by any rookie this season, and 156 games to 23 is really massive. Skenes just couldn't affect the games enough as Merrill did when he only played in 15% of them.