At the very least, they knew he was the best defensive center fielder in the organization, and with the Braves hitting a collective .186 through May 27 and the team under .500, they decided to roll the dice. The Braves called the 21-year-old up from Double-A, even though he had played just 43 games above Class A. Harris repaid the Braves’ faith with one of the best rookie seasons in franchise history, hitting .297/.339/ .515 with 19 home runs and 20 stolen bases playing great defense. Harris edged out teammate Spencer Strider to win the National League Rookie of the Year award on Monday, collecting 22 first-place votes and 134 points to Strider’s eight first-place votes and 103 points. The player of St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Brendan Donovan finished third in the voting. Player, TeamfirstSecondThirdTotalsMichael Harris II, Braves228-134Spencer Strider, Braves821-103brendan Donovan, Cardinals —- 2222Jake McCarthy, Diamondbacks — , Pirates—-22– Baseball Writers’ Association of America Harris and Strider are just the fourth pair of teammates to finish 1-2 in the poll since rankings voting began in 1980, joining the Braves’ Craig Kimbrel and Freddie Freeman in 2011, the Cubs’ Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith in 1989 and the Mariners. Alvin Davis and Mark Langston in 1984. Harris is the ninth player in Braves franchise history to win rookie of the year honors. Harris was hitting .305 for Double-A Mississippi when the Braves called him up. Two days later, Strider made his first start since coming out of the bullpen to start the season. The Braves took off immediately, winning 15 straight from June 1 to June 15, with Harris hitting .370 in that stretch. The Braves finally rallied from 10.5 games behind the Mets in late May to win their fifth straight NL East title. “He’s very calm and he’s very consistent,” manager Brian Snitker said of Harris in early September. “It’s the whole thing. He can beat you in a lot of different ways. With his glove, with his arm, with his feet, with his bat. It’s very well-rounded in a player who can do so much to make an impact. the game .” All of Harris’ tools — his Statcast metrics included 92nd percentile in above-average defensive tackles, 95th percentile in sprint speed and 95th percentile in arm strength — helped carry him to a season 5.3 WAR just the 34th rookie position player with 5.0 WAR since the division’s era began in 1969. He did it in just 114 games, the fewest of any player on the list. The only Rookies of the Year since 2010 with a higher WAR were Mike Trout, Jose Abreu, Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso. In mid-August, the Braves awarded Harris an eight-year contract extension worth $72 million through 2030, with two club option seasons that could reach $102 million over 10 years. Not bad for a kid who grew up a Braves fan in Stockbridge, Georgia, 35 miles south of Truist Park. “Yeah, I certainly never thought about the year 2030,” Harris said when he signed the deal. “It’s far away. I’m just glad I can stay here in Atlanta this long.” The Braves selected the hometown boy in the third round of the 2018 draft — when many teams were eyeing Harris as a pitcher. Braves scout Dana Brown, now the director of scouting, saw an outfielder with power and speed. As Buster Olney wrote earlier this year, the Braves invited Harris to hit at Truist Park before the draft, and he filled the outfield with home runs in batting practice.
1 Related Harris told the Braves, “I’m a hitter.” Harris, however, hadn’t hit much power in the minors, hitting seven home runs in Class A Rome in 2021 and just five in those 43 games in Double-A. Once he joined Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, Harris made an adjustment, lowering his hands. Harris immediately took to the change and his power took off. Harris spent his first three months hitting in the bottom of a strong Atlanta lineup, but hit third in the final week of the season when the Braves swept the Mets in a crucial series to clinch the division title. “As he matures and becomes the player we all know he is, he’s probably going to be in that No. 2 or No. 3 spot for a long time,” Snitker said near the end of the season. Strider also had a remarkable season, going 11-5 with a 2.67 ERA and 202 strikeouts in 131.2 innings. Strider became just the 10th rookie since 1969 with 200 strikeouts and the first since Yu Darvish in 2012. His 13.81 strikeouts per nine innings was the second-highest ever by a pitcher with at least 100 innings, behind only Gerrit Cole 13.8192 in 2. “Everybody’s trying to identify specific checkpoints that they’re trying to hit,” Strider said when he reached that 200-strikeout milestone. “I don’t think I was trying to hit 200 guys in a season. That wasn’t my goal. It was just to win games, keep us in games, things I can control and be in control of.” The vote might have been closer if Strider hadn’t lost the last two-plus weeks with a lopsided strain. Strider also received his own financial reward when he signed a six-year, $75 million extension in early October that includes a $22 million club option for 2029. Harris and Strider will also receive an additional bonus through the pre-arbitration bonus pool agreed to in the new labor agreement: $750,000 for Harris and $500,000 for Strider.
