Logan Henderson's midseason IL stint proves costly in Rookie of the Year voting

Major League Baseball's announcement of this year's Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) end-of-season awards began with the reveal of the 2026 Rookies of the Year last night. As most were expecting, Kevin McGonigle of the Detroit Tigers and Sal Stewart of the Cincinnati Reds took home the awards in their respective leagues.

The Milwaukee Brewers, meanwhile, had a player finish in the top six in Rookie of the Year voting for the third consecutive year. After Jackson Chourio finished third in 2024 and Caleb Durbin and Isaac Collins finished third and fourth, respectively, last year, right-hander Logan Henderson finished sixth in NL Rookie of the Year voting this year.

A sizable gap separated Henderson, who finished with 10 total points, and fifth-place finisher TJ Rumfeld of the Colorado Rockies, who earned 49 points. Both were well shy of the 170 points that Stewart racked up. It's not necessarily surprising, Henderson's modest vote total, but his underwhelming performance in the Rookie of the Year race has far more to do with how much he pitched this year than how well he pitched. A late start to the season and a month-long stint on the IL in the middle of the year therefore prevented Henderson from finishing higher in this year's Rookie of the Year race.

Logan Henderson had the performance to make a run at Rookie of the Year, but not the innings

After dealing with elbow discomfort during Spring Training, Henderson got a late start to what was officially his rookie season. Though he appeared in a game as a mop-up reliever in early April, Henderson didn't make his first start of the season until May 3, when he tossed a quality start against the Washington Nationals in the nation's capital.

A strong month of May unfortunately ended with Henderson landing on the IL with a back strain -- one that kept him off the mound until July 9. While Henderson was just as effective upon his return from the IL, he had already missed too much time to make a real run at the Rookie of the Year award. Despite making regular starts from early July through the end of the season, Henderson finished the campaign with just 98.1 innings, more than 80 innings less than Nolan McLean of the New York Mets, who finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Assuming Henderson's effectiveness and his stellar 2.47 ERA held over the course of a full season, the Brewers' right-hander would have had a real shot to at least be a finalist for this year's Rookie of the Year award. While competing with Stewart's 32 homers and 112 RBI during his head-turning rookie season would have been difficult even if Henderson had 150+ innings to his name, the Brewers' starter could have had the strikeout numbers and wins to back up a Rookie of the Year candidacy had he logged more innings.

The positive spin is that Henderson performed well enough to be a serious Rookie of the Year contender, but just simply didn't have the opportunities that his fellow candidates possessed. Regardless, Henderson, who the Brewers notably elected not to trade for Tarik Skubal at the deadline -- a decision that couldn't have worked out better -- figures to be a key part of Milwaukee's rotation for the foreseeable future. The 24-year-old right-hander, who already has World Series experience to his name, is under contract for the next five seasons, during which he and Cy Young frontrunner Jacob Misiorowski will headline the Brewers' rotation.

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