Tip Your Cap to Sal Stewart — But Lots of Excitementand Talent in Queens

The writers have spoken. On MLB Network tonight, Cincinnati's Sal Stewart was named the 2026 National League Rookie of the Year, earning 20 of the 30 first-place votes and 170 points in the balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Carson Benge finished second with 107 points, ahead of St. Louis' JJ Wetherholt (99).

Let's get the important part out of the way first: no sour grapes in this corner of Queens. Stewart earned it.

All the 22-year-old did was play in all 162 games — starting 161 of them — and hit .263 with a .330 on-base percentage, a .457 slugging percentage, 32 home runs, 112 RBI, 87 runs scored and 15 stolen bases. He led all National League rookies in homers and runs batted in. His 112 RBI broke the Reds' rookie record, and his 32 homers are the second-most ever by a Cincinnati rookie, behind only Frank Robinson's 38 in 1956. His 164 hits were the most by a Reds rookie since Pete Rose collected 170 in 1963. He was an All-Star, he was the league's Rookie of the Month in both April and August — the first Reds rookie ever to win it twice in one season — and he became just the fourth rookie in baseball history with 30 home runs and 110 RBI in a season, joining a little club called Albert Pujols, Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso.

Stewart had already won The Sporting News rookie award and the Players Choice Award as the National League's outstanding rookie. Tonight's vote makes it a clean sweep. Mets fans may remember, with a wince, that the kid's first big-league home run came against the Mets, back in September of 2025. Apparently it was a scouting report.

Benge's case was real, and it will stand up fine in the retelling. The Mets' right fielder hit .282/.346/.430 with 20 homers, 65 RBI and 22 steals, broke Alonso's club rookie record with 168 hits, became the first 20-20 rookie in franchise history, saved seven runs with his glove, threw out 10 runners and was a Gold Glove finalist — a 4.3-WAR season against Stewart's 2.0. St. Louis' JJ Wetherholt, the third finalist, had his believers too. This was a genuine three-man argument, and the writers chose the thunder. That happens. Benge will just have to console himself with being the best all-around rookie in the league and the owner of right field at Citi Field for the next decade or so.

When Benge's name was called the runner up tonight, he joined a short and distinguished line of Mets runners-up. The most recent was Kodai Senga, the last New York Mets player to finish as a runner-up in Rookie of the Year voting, placing second in the 2023 National League race behind the Arizona Diamondbacks' Corbin Carroll, who won unanimously. Before him came Jerry Koosman in 1968: the left-handed pitcher had a phenomenal rookie season, going 19-12 with a 2.08 ERA and 17 complete games, and narrowly finished second — 10½ votes to 9½ — to Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds. And the first of them was Ron Hunt in 1963: the second baseman, who a year later became the first player in Mets history to start an All-Star Game, finished as the runner-up to future all-time hits leader Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds.

Here's the thing, though — and it's the thing that actually matters for the Mets' winter: the award was never the prize. The player is. And Mets fans of a certain age have seen this movie before.

In June of 1983, the Mets were a last-place club going nowhere, and general manager Frank Cashen traded for Keith Hernandez, who arrived from the defending champion Cardinals considerably less than thrilled. Hernandez figured he'd play out the string and leave as a free agent. What changed his mind? Cashen sat him down and showed him what was coming. Darryl Strawberry had just arrived. Dwight Gooden was on the way. The farm system Cashen had rebuilt was about to yield some big-time crops. Hernandez believed him, signed a five-year extension the following February — and two years after that, he was a world champion. As Keith later put it, Whitey Herzog thought he was burying him in New York. He had no idea about the wealth of talent on the way.

Now look at where the Mets sit tonight. Yes, 74-88. Yes, last place — the same view the '83 Mets had at 68-94. But when David Stearns sits down this winter with the stars deciding whether Queens is worth their prime, he can make Cashen's exact pitch.

He can point to Benge in right field and A.J. Ewing in center — Ewing, who debuted in May, stole 25 bases to break Mookie Wilson's Mets rookie record and, in Steve Cohen's words, gave the club "an outfield." He can point to the young arms: Nolan McLean, who made 31 starts with a 3.16 ERA and struck out 194; Christian Scott, back from Tommy John surgery; Zac Thornton; and Jonah Tong still knocking on the door. And he can point to the dozen prospects hauled in at the trade deadline — headlined by infielder Jefferson Rojas — 11 of them 23 or younger.

Sal Stewart gets the plaque, and he's welcome to it. The Mets got the future. Ask Keith Hernandez how that trade-off works out.

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