Carlos Correa graced us with his presence on June 8th of this year in a game at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. He went 1 for 4 that day and never looked back.
From the outset there was nothing rookie about him. He was comfortable, had humility and athletic grace, all to go along with superior talent. He hit his first home run in his second big-league game, the next one came in his fourth. All of this at the tender age of 20.
A few days later, on June 14th, another highly talented young Puerto Rican shortstop made his major-league debut. Francisco Lindor was a top-5 prospect in all of baseball according to most publications. His arrival in Cleveland was met with great anticipation, but fans quickly realized "he was no Carlos Correa".
In his first 115 plate appearances Lindor underwhelmed. A .224 BA, .257 OBP, and .565 OPS was not exactly what Indians fans had in mind.
There would be no Rookie of the Year race in the American League in 2015. MLB's engraver was free to inscribe Correa's name on the plaque right now and so we stopped paying attention.
But suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, Lindor came charging from the back of the pack to challenge the sure favorite Correa.
Through August 31st...
| Correa | Lindor | |
| fWAR | 2.8 | 2.6 |
| bWAR | 3.1 | 2.8 |
| PA | 298 | 305 |
| BA | .281 | .307 |
| OBP | .349 | .347 |
| HR | 16 | 7 |
| R | 38 | 33 |
| RBI | 45 | 31 |
| SB | 11 | 6 |
| DRS | 0 | 7 |
Lindor will have his work cut out for him in September as he attempts to get voters to consider him for the award.
The bigger take away for me is that we seem to have entered a new golden age for shortstops in the American League. There was a void left when the Jeter, Ripken, Tejada, A-Rod, Garciaparra era ended. Correa, Lindor, Xander Bogaerts, Jose Iglesias and even Didi Gregorius are creating a new friendly rivalry among AL shortstops.
And then there was this, from Indians beat writer T.J. Zuppe:
Oh no you didn't!
