First Asian American baseball player voted NL Rookie of the Year

Diamondbacks player Corbin Carroll voted NL Rookie of the Year.

When Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll was named the 2023 Jackie Robinson National League Rookie of the Year Monday, he became the first Asian American to win that honor.

The vote was unanimous among the Baseball Writers Association of America for the 23-year old whose mother is from Taiwan.

“Definitely not the biggest guy out there on the field, but my ability to not be that guy and still be able to impact the game, that’s one piece of it,” Carroll told media during a conference call Monday.

“Not too many Asian Americans in this circumstance — I Definitely not the biggest guy out there on the field, but my ability to not be that guy and still be able to impact the game, that’s one piece of it, that I hope to inspire.”

The Seattle-raised Carrol is also the first D-back rookie in franchise history to earn the title. 

His performance this past season helped the team reach the World Series as the National League champs, eventually losing to the World Sries champ Texas Rangers.

When informed that he was the first Taiwanese American to play in the Fall Classic, he said: “Wow, that's really cool. I didn’t know that, My grandparents lived over there and my mom was born over there. Just bringing some pride and attention to Taiwanese baseball and that side of my heritage, I take a lot of pride in that.”

Other accomplishments that impressed the baseball writers:

• Became the first Rookie in MLB history to join the 25 homer and 50 stolen bases club.
• Became the first player in MLB history to record 10+ triples, 25+ homers and 50+ steals in a season.
• Became the ninth player to ever record a 20+-homer, 50+-stolen-base season.
• Ranked among Major League hitters in triples (2nd, 10), stolen bases (3rd, 54) and runs (7th, 116).
• Led MLB qualified Rookies in hits (161), triples (10), total bases (286) and runs (116).
• Became the 10th National League Rookie All-Star starter (since 1948) and first fan-elected Rookie starter since 2010…at 22 years old, he was the youngest player on either roster.
• Led the D-backs in hits (161), triples (10), runs (116), stolen bases (54), average (.285), OBP (.362), slugging percentage (.506) and OPS (.868).
• His 54 stolen bases marked the most by a Rookie in D-backs’ franchise history, ahead of Chris Young/2007 (27) and rank second all-time by a D-back in a season, behind Tony Womack/1999 (72).

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