The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year Award

The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year Award was presented annually by The Sporting News^[a] to a player in Minor League Baseball deemed to have had the most outstanding season. It was awarded annually starting in 1936,^[1] and was last known to have been awarded in 2007.^[2]

The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year Award

Sport	Baseball
League	Minor League Baseball
Awarded for	Player of the Year
Country	United States, Canada, Mexico
Presented by	The Sporting News[a]
History
First award	1936
First winner	Johnny Vander Meer
Most wins	Gene Conley (1951, 1953) Sandy Alomar Jr. (1988, 1989)
Most recent	Jay Bruce (2007)

Winners

The first winner of the award, Johnny Vander Meer, subsequently pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) and is best known for pitching back-to-back no-hitters in 1938. Several winners of the award are inductees of the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Johnny Bench, Vladimir Guerrero, Derek Jeter, Pedro Martínez, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, and Phil Rizzuto. Two players won the award twice: Gene Conley (1951, 1953) and Sandy Alomar Jr. (1988, 1989). There was one tie, occurring in 1988 when Alomar Jr. shared the honor with Gary Sheffield.^[3] Each winner of the award went on to play in MLB, with the exception of Jason Stokes, who won the award in 2002 while in Class A and later reached the Triple-A level.^[4]

1936: Johnny Vander Meer 1937: Charlie Keller 1938: Fred Hutchinson 1939: Lou Novikoff 1940: Phil Rizzuto 1941: Johnny Lindell 1942: Dick Barrett 1943: Chet Covington 1944: Ripper Collins 1945: Gil Coan 1946: Sibby Sisti 1947: Hank Sauer 1948: Gene Woodling 1949: Orie Arntzen 1950: Frank Saucier 1951: Gene Conley 1952: Moose Skowron 1953: Gene Conley 1954: Herb Score 1955: Red Murff 1956: Steve Bilko 1957: Norm Siebern 1958: Jim O'Toole 1959: Frank Howard

1960: Willie Davis 1961: Howie Koplitz 1962: Bob Bailey 1963: Don Buford 1964: Mel Stottlemyre 1965: Joe Foy 1966: Mike Epstein 1967: Johnny Bench 1968: Merv Rettenmund 1969: Danny Walton 1970: Don Baylor 1971: Bobby Grich 1972: Tom Paciorek 1973: Steve Ontiveros 1974: Jim Rice 1975: Héctor Cruz 1976: Pat Putnam 1977: Ken Landreaux 1978: Champ Summers 1979: Mark Bomback 1980: Tim Raines 1981: Mike Marshall 1982: Ron Kittle 1983: Kevin McReynolds

1984: Alan Knicely 1985: Jose Canseco 1986: Tim Pyznarski 1987: Randy Milligan 1988: Sandy Alomar Jr. & Gary Sheffield 1989: Sandy Alomar Jr. 1990: José Offerman 1991: Pedro Martínez 1992: Tim Salmon 1993: Cliff Floyd 1994: Derek Jeter 1995: Karim García 1996: Vladimir Guerrero 1997: Ben Grieve 1998: Gabe Kapler 1999: Rick Ankiel 2000: Jon Rauch 2001: Josh Beckett 2002: Jason Stokes 2003: Zack Greinke 2004: Dallas McPherson 2005: Brandon Wood 2006: Alex Gordon 2007: Jay Bruce

Source:^[5][2]

See also

• Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year Award
• USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award
• Topps Minor League Player of the Year Award

Notes

1. In 2002, The Sporting News adjusted their name to Sporting News.

References

1. Mehl, Ernest (January 21, 1953). "Sporting Comment". The Kansas City Star. p. 28. Retrieved December 17, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
2. "Sporting News honors OF Bruce". The Cincinnati Enquirer. October 2, 2007. p. C3. Retrieved December 17, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
3. "Locally". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. December 3, 1988. p. 2D. Retrieved December 18, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
4. "Jason Stokes Minor, Fall & Independent Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
5. Dutton, Bob (March 3, 2008). "Once a phenom, Royals' Gordon ready to succeed". St. Joseph News-Press. St. Joseph, Missouri. p. D1. Retrieved December 17, 2020 – via newspapers.com.