LAS VEGAS -- In the end, Sal Stewart’s traditional excellence outstripped Carson Benge's more modern, analytical Rookie of the Year case.
Stewart won the 2026 National League Rookie of the Year award, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced Monday, scoring 20 of a possible 30 first-place votes and 170 total points. Benge finished second with seven first-place votes and 107 points. Two voters ranked him as low as fifth.
The balloting represented a contrast in candidacies. Stewart, a traditionalist’s choice, hit 32 homers and drove in 112 runs while playing in all 162 games. Benge couldn’t match that sort of power production, but he did have a more well-rounded case, with power, speed, defense and arm strength all playing into his candidacy.
JJ Wetherholt of the Cardinals finished third in voting, followed by Nolan McLean in fourth. The Mets were the only team with three players to receive votes, including A.J. Ewing, who garnered a single fifth-place vote to finish ninth.
In the American League, Toronto’s Kevin McGonigle was the near-unanimous winner in a less hotly contested vote.
Benge, 23, made the Mets’ Opening Day roster on the strength of a standout spring, but he didn’t succeed immediately. Playing every day in the outfield, Benge held a .498 OPS as late in the season as the morning of May 3. From that day forward, he produced an .828 OPS over his final 126 games, finishing with 20 homers and 22 stolen bases for the first 20-20 season by a Mets rookie. Benge also finished with 10 outfield assists, the most of any NL right fielder.
Entering September, Stewart, who was leading the NL in RBIs at that time, appeared to be a Rookie of the Year lock. But he slumped over the final two weeks of the season while Benge caught fire, finishing the campaign with six multi-hit efforts in his final nine games. That gave him at least a puncher’s chance to unseat Stewart, though a majority of voters wound up disagreeing.
Had he won, Benge would have become the Mets’ seventh Rookie of the Year, joining Tom Seaver, Jon Matlack, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Jacob deGrom and Pete Alonso. The Mets don’t have any finalists for the BBWAA’s other four awards: MVP, Cy Young, Manager of the Year and Reliever of the Year.