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Kristian Campbell (Photo by Gavin Napier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The month of May is upon us, which means that one-sixth of the MLB regular season is in the books. The Red Sox have played 32 games already—more than any other team—which is 20% of their scheduled 162.
Still, 20% of an MLB season is not enough of a sample to properly evaluate player performance, especially rookie performance.
So as we take stock of the 2025 rookie class for the first time during the season, we lean a little heavier on preseason expectations than we will in future rookie evaluations.
Precedent points to the wisdom of this approach.
While many first-year players who go on to win Rookie of the Year get out of the gates hot, a number of ROY winners have gotten off to slower starts.
Here are the March/April hitting performances by eventual Rookie of the Year winners, minimum 50 plate appearances, in the 30-team era. Remember, this chart displays March/April statistics only.
| year | ROY | team | AVG | OBP | SLG | wrc+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Aaron Judge | NYY | .303 | .411 | .750 | 199 |
| 2001 | Albert Pujols | STL | .370 | .431 | .739 | 198 |
| 2019 | Pete Alonso | NYM | .292 | .382 | .642 | 165 |
| 2008 | Geovany Soto | CHC | .333 | .427 | .621 | 164 |
| 2014 | Jose Abreu | CWS | .270 | .336 | .617 | 161 |
| 2015 | Kris Bryant | CHC | .318 | .455 | .409 | 148 |
| 2023 | Corbin Carroll | ARI | .309 | .374 | .536 | 144 |
| 2008 | Evan Longoria | TB | .273 | .388 | .527 | 142 |
| 1998 | Ben Grieve | OAK | .314 | .405 | .467 | 133 |
| 2002 | Eric Hinske | TOR | .318 | .398 | .471 | 131 |
| 2006 | Hanley Ramirez | FLA | .304 | .379 | .489 | 127 |
| 2021 | Randy Arozarena | TB | .287 | .343 | .426 | 117 |
| 2001 | Ichiro Suzuki | SEA | .336 | .358 | .431 | 112 |
| 2000 | Rafael Furcal | ATL | .295 | .392 | .364 | 102 |
| 2003 | Angel Berroa | KC | .280 | .337 | .427 | 98 |
| 2023 | Gunnar Henderson | BAL | .189 | .348 | .311 | 96 |
| 2016 | Corey Seager | LAD | .250 | .311 | .396 | 89 |
| 1999 | Carlos Beltran | KC | .307 | .315 | .455 | 86 |
| 2021 | Jonathan India | CIN | .239 | .316 | .358 | 74 |
| 2004 | Bobby Crosby | OAK | .200 | .269 | .383 | 66 |
| 2022 | Julio Rodriguez | SEA | .205 | .284 | .260 | 62 |
| 2007 | Dustin Pedroia | BOS | .182 | .308 | .236 | 51 |
It certainly helps to get off to a great start, like Aaron Judge, Albert Pujols or Pete Alonso did as rookies. But future stars such as Corey Seager, Carlos Beltran and, especially, Julio Rodriguez and Dustin Pedroia overcame slow starts on their way to Rookie of the Year awards.
Some ROYs don’t even appear on the chart because they didn’t accumulate 50 PAs in April. That group includes Ronald Acuña Jr., Cody Bellinger, Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. Other winners such as Yordan Alvarez, Ryan Braun, Carlos Correa, Ryan Howard and Buster Posey compiled no March/April statistics, because they didn’t make their season debuts until later.
All that is to…