Guardians Pitcher Snubbed as Rookie Of The Year Finalist

Cade Smith of the Cleveland Guardians was shockingly not a 2024 American League Rookie of the Year finalist.

Oct 17, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians pitcher Cade Smith (36) throws during the sixth inning against the New York Yankees in game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

MLB Award season is officially upon us, and the Cleveland Guardians have a couple of members of their organization up for some pretty impressive accolades, such as Manager of the Year and Cy Young.

However, there is one category the Guardians had no representatives in that is a little bit of head scratching. This would be the American League Rookie of the Year race.

The 2024 finalists for this award are Baltimore Orioles Outfidler Colton Cowser, New York Yankees pitcher Luis Gil, and Yankee catcher Austin Wells.

A case must be made that Guardians setup man Cade Smith was snubbed from being Rookie of the Year Finalist.

As ESPN's Buster Olney pointed out, Smith finished with 74 appearances, the eighth most in baseball, and 103 strikeouts which tied for third among MLB relievers. Not just rookie relievers but all of baseball.

The advanced stats also favored Cade, finishing with a 1.91 ERA, 1.40 FIP, and 213 ERA+.

Oct 17, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians pitcher Cade Smith (36) throws during the sixth inning against the New York Yankees in game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Dermer-Imagn Images / David Dermer-Imagn Images

It's not easy to compare pitchers to position players because they provide drastically different values when on the field. However, Smith has a higher WAR (2.7) than Gil (2.2), the only other pitcher on this list.

Not to mention, this was the highest WAR out of Cleveland's bullpen, which includes Emmanuel Clase, a Cy Young finalist.

Given that each of these players plays different positions, we can look at consistency as a key indicator, and no one was more consistent than Cade throughout the full 162-game season.

Gil had a few great months but also had a 6.45 ERA in June and a 5.25 ERA in August. While Wells was a defensive wizard behind the plate, he hit under .240 in four months.

At his best, Cowser was a great power hitter for Baltimore. However, multiple times throughout the season, he was optioned to help re-find his swing.

It's also important to note team success when looking at Smith's contributions and ROY snub.

Yes, the Yankees and Orioles were each playoff teams and are among baseball's best organizations. However, Cade was Cleveland's key piece man for a historically good bullpen last season.

At the end of the day, awards won't change the incredible season Cade had, and he's going to be a critical part of Cleveland's reliever core moving forward.