RetroSimba

(Updated Jan. 13, 2025)

The only Cardinals pitcher to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award is Todd Worrell. He received the honor on Nov. 24, 1986.

Cardinals pitchers who have been runners-up for the award are Harvey Haddix (1953), Dick Hughes (1967), Matt Morris (1997) and Rick Ankiel (2000).

Worrell received 23 of 24 first-place votes (Kevin Mitchell of the Mets got the other) in balloting for the 1986 award. The right-hander established a NL rookie record for saves, 36.

Among those finishing behind Worrell in the rookie award voting that year: Giants first baseman Will Clark (fifth), Pirates outfielder Barry Bonds (sixth) and Reds shortstop Barry Larkin (seventh).

Worrell qualified as a rookie in 1986 even though he played prominent roles in the 1985 National League Championship Series and the World Series.

The relief ace kept his rookie status in 1986 because during the 1985 regular season he pitched fewer than 50 innings (21.2) and was with St. Louis for fewer than 45 days before rosters expanded Sept. 1.

Worrell was a first-round pick of the Cardinals in the 1982 amateur draft from Biola University in La Mirada, Calif. “I wanted him more than anybody I’ve ever drafted,” Cardinals scouting director Fred McAlister told the Cardinals Yearbook in 1988. “I had a good feeling about him.”

A starting pitcher in the minor leagues, Worrell was 3-10 with a 4.49 ERA in 18 starts at Class AA Arkansas in 1984. After Worrell made 17 starts for Class AAA Louisville in 1985, Lee Thomas, a former big-league outfielder and the Cardinals’ director of player development, and scout Hal Smith, a former big-league catcher, suggested he become a reliever. Smith had noticed Worrell’s fastball consistently reached speeds of 92 to 93 mph the first two innings before his velocity dropped to 86 or 87 mph.

The change immediately brought results. “It was almost like a little light went on in my head,” Worrell said in an interview in the Dec. 8, 1986, edition of The Sporting News. “By the time I got through the first month (as a reliever), there was no doubt in my mind that this was what would get me to the big leagues.”

Said Thomas: “He became an offensive pitcher instead of being a defensive pitcher.”

Worrell appeared in 74 games for manager Whitey Herzog’s 1986 Cardinals.

Among Worrell’s most impressive statistics that season:

_ Right-handed batters hit .196 against him.

_ In the 36 games he saved, he had a 1.11 ERA and batters hit .146.

_ With two outs and runners in scoring position, he held batters to a .147 average.

“When I came up to the Cardinals in that (closer) role, Whitey stayed with me and believed in me,” Worrell told Cardinals Magazine. “It’s a major commitment … That went a long way with me in my development as a closer.”