Phillies end-of-year awards: Most/Least Valuable, Cy Young/Yuk
By John Town
Rookie of the Year: Seranthony Dominguez
This award was another easy one. While Jorge Alfaro had a good start to his major-league career, he didn’t make the immediate impact that Seranthony Dominguez did. From the moment he was called up, Dominguez was one of the team’s best relievers.
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Prior to this season, Dominguez had not pitched above High-A Clearwater. Seeing the starting depth ahead of him, the Phillies decided to move Dominguez to the bullpen. The move worked out as he rocketed up from Double-A to the majors by the first week of May. Once he reached Philadelphia, it didn’t take long for him to become the team’s go-to reliever in a pinch.
In 53 appearances, Dominguez posted a 2.95 ERA, 2.85 fielding-independent pitching, 0.93 WHIP, and 3.36 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He finished the year with 2.4 Baseball-Reference wins above replacement, third-best on the team. These strong numbers didn’t come in garbage time, either; Dominguez recorded 16 saves and 14 holds.
Only Aaron Nola had a better win probability added than Dominguez, and no pitcher on the team had a higher leverage index.
Among all qualified relievers, Dominguez ranked 18th in strikeout rate, 29th in fielding-independent pitching, 24th in skill-interactive ERA, and ninth in WHIP. Among rookie pitchers with 50 or more innings pitched, Dominguez had the fourth-best fielding-independent pitching, 10th-best ERA, best strikeout rate, and most saves.
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With Juan Soto, Harrison Bader, Ronald Acuna, and Walker Buehler all having great rookie seasons, the chances of Dominguez even appearing on the ballot aren’t that likely. That shouldn’t discount what he did as he made a huge impact in a bullpen that had issues for much of the year. Dominguez should continue to be the team’s go-to reliever next year and perhaps even longer.