A's Jacob Wilson the Runaway Favorite in Early AL Rookie of the Year Poll

When the month of April concluded, Boston's Kristian Campbell was named the American League's Rookie of the Month. He'd hit the ground running, batting .287 with a .388 OBP, three home runs and ten RBI. After a rough start to the month of May where he's batting .085 with a .104 on-base, the biggest question swirling around Campbell is when he'll begin playing first base.

In a recently published piece on MLB.com, it turns out that A's shortstop Jacob Wilson is now the runaway favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year award after a month and a half. Wilson has collected 31 of the possible 34 first-place votes in this poll, with Campbell grabbing the other three.

"Wilson has been one of the brightest bright spots for an A's team that has outperformed expectations for much of the season. He led all qualified AL rookies with an .847 OPS through Sunday and ranked second with a .337 batting average. He was also tops among AL rookies in hits (60), runs (25), doubles (10) and RBIs (26), and was tied for the lead in homers (five)."

Wilson has not only been one of the top rookies in baseball, but he's been a top-20 bat in the game as well, according to wRC+. His 148 (100 is league average) is tops on the A's and ranks him No. 20 in MLB heading into Wednesday's games.

When you fold his defensive play into the mix, he has a total of 2.0 fWAR, which ranks No. 11 among all batters in baseball. Some of the names ahead of him are Aaron Judge (4.1), Shohei Ohtani (2.8), Bobby Witt Jr. (2.8), and Freddie Freeman (2.3). That's a pretty impressive list to be on, especially when you're ahead of Francisco Lindor (1.9), Kyle Tucker (1.9), and Pete Alonso (1.9).

Not only has Wilson graded out well on both sides of the ball, but he's been integral to the A's runs of success this season, collecting numerous big hits, including game winners. He's also nearly automatic with runners on base (.438 average) and with runners in scoring position (.450).

In terms of wRC+, he has graded out at a 208 with runners on base, and a 233 with runners in scoring position. That just means he soars to Aaron Judge levels of production in those situations.

On top of Wilson leading the way, another pair of A's rookies--righty reliever Justin Sterner and No. 1 prospect Nick Kurtz--also received votes in this poll, though they were not first place votes. Another Red Sox player, Roman Anthony, also received a vote, even though he has yet to make his MLB debut. Jac Caglianone of the Kansas City Royals is in that boat as well.

Each of those sluggers would need to have tremendous debuts once they get the call, since Wilson has built up a decent lead in the early part of the season. That said, he's not as much of a home run threat as those two, so it could depend on how they perform when they arrive, and what stats sway the voters.