News

Story by Ryan Divish with the Seattle Times

When the 2020 baseball season ended for Kyle Lewis and the Mariners on Sept. 26 — and another disappointing year without a postseason berth for Seattle — a much-needed break from the daily grind was a priority for the rookie outfielder.

Lewis’ first full season of Major League Baseball was an experience unlike any other. It featured spring training halted due to the coronavirus pandemic, sports and basic normal life being shut down for 3½ months, an abbreviated version of spring training called “summer camp” to prepare for a compressed 60-game regular season that featured constant testing for COVID-19, stringent protocols and not a single fan in the stands for games.

Despite all of that, Lewis flourished. Starting nearly every game in center field and hitting in the middle of the batting order, Lewis produced a .262/.364/.437 slash line* with three doubles, 11 home runs, 28 RBI, five stolen bases, 34 walks and 71 strikeouts in 58 games. It was an award-worthy performance for a player in his first full season.

He led all rookies in MLB in runs scored (37), walks (34), total bases (90), times on base (88) and on-base percentage (.364), while also ranking among rookie leaders in games played (tied for first with 58), home runs (tied for first with 11), RBI (second with 28), slugging percentage (second at .437), on-base plus slugging percentage (second at .801), at-bats (second at 206), hits (tied for second with 54), multi-hit games (tied for second with 15) and batting average (third at .262).

Accolades began to accumulate.

He earned baseball’s highest honor for a rookie by winning the 2020 Jackie Robinson American League Rookie of the Year award. Lewis garnered all 30 first-place votes, becoming the 12th player to win it unanimously.

His other awards included:

• Mariners’ most valuable player by the Seattle chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
• The American League’s most outstanding rookie in the Major League Baseball Players Association in its 2020 Players Choice awards.
• AL Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News and Baseball Digest.

Lewis could add to that collection of hardware after recently being named as one five nominees for the 2020 Seattle Men’s Sports Star of the Year as part of the annual Sports Star of the Year Awards, now in its 86th year.

The four other nominees for the award are Jordan Morris of the Sounders, K.J. Wright of the Seahawks, Elijah Molden of the University of Washington Huskies football team and Kyle Manzardo of the Washington State Cougars baseball team.