For each of the last three seasons, a member of the New York Yankees finished among the top two vote-getters in the Rookie of the Year Award balloting. That’s a franchise first. It’s also shocking, considering the long list of talented players who have emerged from the club’s farm system over the decades.
The closest the team has ever come to boasting either a winner or runner-up for three straight years happened nearly 70 years ago. Jerry Coleman placed third in the 1949 ROY voting, Whitey Ford was runner-up the following year, and Gil McDougald took home the award in 1951.