Monday’s news was a bummer for the Padres on multiple levels. There’s just no sugarcoating that bad luck stung them when the National League’s Rookie of the Year award went to Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes.

Hard-throwing Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes beat San Diego Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill and Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio for the National League Rookie of the Year Award on Monday.

Jackson Merrill did not care about the NL Rookie of the Year. The Padres’ 21-year-old center fielder made that clear any time he was asked about the award. So this may be harder on his teammates or the San Diego fanbase than Merrill himself: Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes was named the NL’s top rookie as the Baseball Writers’ Association of America began rolling out the sport’s major awards this week.

San Diego Padres rookie outfielder Jackson Merrill picked up a historic Silver Slugger Award win on Tuesday night. MLB.com’s Sarah Langs noted in a post on X (f

This was a two-person race between San Diego Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill and Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Paul Skenes. MLB announced the winner of the award just before 3:30 p.m. Monday and Skenes was named the National League Rookie of the Year, with Merrill finishing second in the voting.