JJ Wetherholt, TJ Rumfield would like a word.
Wetherholt, the Cardinals’ All-Star second baseman, is the clear favorite to win National League Rookie of the Year. But Rumfield continues to make his presence felt in the race after the first baseman notched a career-high four-hit day in Saturday’s 10-3 rout of the Reds at Coors Field.
“TJ’s making a very strong case for that (award), but he’s got another 62 games to go,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer deadpanned. “So no let up.”
Rumfield remains an 18-1 longshot to win the award, according to the but the fact remains that he’s been one of the Rockies’ best players this year. He’s made first-year president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta look “Moneyball” good, after DePodesta acquired Rumfield from the Yankees in January in exchange for middling reliever Angel Chivilli.
Rumfield quickly asserted himself with the club, winning the Abby Greer Award as Colorado’s spring training MVP while easily claiming the vacant first base job. He was NL Rookie of the Month in both May and June, the first player in franchise history to win that award in consecutive months.
Entering Saturday, among NL rookies who have played at least 80 games, here’s how Rumfield stacks up against the rest of the league’s rookies and Weatherholt specifically.
- 1st in average (.295) … Weatherholt .262
- 1st in on-base percentage (.379) … Weatherholt .359
- 1st in OPS (.851) … Weatherholt .768
- 1st in wOBA (.373) … Weatherholt .342
- 1st in wRC (64) … Weatherholt 57
- 2nd in bWAR (2.4) … Weatherholt 4.0
- 2nd in slugging (.472) … Weatherholt .408
- 3rd in homers (12) … Weatherholt 14
- 3rd in RBIs (47) … Weatherholt 37
- 3rd in walks (40) … Weatherholt 41
The first baseman opened his career day on Saturday with an RBI single to center in the first inning to make it 2-0. Then, Rumfield had another RBI single in the second off Rhett Lowder, pushing the score to 5-0. He led off the fourth with another single, this time off Metropolitan State University of Denver alum Julian Garcia.
Then came the moonshot in the sixth, a two-run, 456-foot homer off Caleb Ferguson that solidified the skunking by making it 10-2. It was Rumfield’s longest career homer and gave him a career-high 4 RBIs.
“That’s a tough matchup with Ferguson, left-on-left, but TJ’s just a great hitter,” outfielder Jake McCarthy said. “He shoots balls the other way with two strikes, and then when he wants to do damage, he can do that.”
Rumfield also had a web gem in the win, snaring a sharp one-hop grounder down the line with a slick backhand play to get Edwin Arroyo out. Rumfield, who said he isn’t paying attention to where he stands in the Rookie of the Year race, downplayed his big day.
“It’s a cool day to have individually, but collectively, I feel like this is one of the best baseball games we’ve played as a whole,” Rumfield said.
Meanwhile, Reds third baseman Sal Stewart — the first Cincinnati rookie to make the All-Star Game , and the top Vegas challenger to Weatherholt’s award candidacy — was 0 for 4 with a strikeout as his average dropped to .254.
Also of note in Saturday’s victory, Tomoyuki Sugano returned from a brief stint on the injured list (back spasms) with a quality start to complement Colorado’s offense. The Japanese starter spun six-plus innings, allowing three runs on six hits with three strikeouts and no walks. Cincinnati’s biggest damage came off a pair of solo homers by catcher Jose Trevino in the third and fifth as Sugano became the first Rockies pitcher to record a winning decision in four straight Coors Field starts since Jon Gray in 2021.
“I saw excellent fastball command, strong velo (topping at 93.6), and the splitter was really good,” Schaeffer said. “He gave us just what we needed today. It was typical Tomoyuki Sugano stuff.”
