Puig finishes second in NL Rookie of Year vote

It was an ebullient Cuban sensation who took home the Jackie Robinson National League Rookie of the Year Award on Monday night, but that rookie wasn't Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig.

Instead, 21-year-old Marlins right-hander Jose Fernandez was named the NL's top rookie in an hour-long special on MLB Network. Puig, who received four first-place votes, finished second, and the Cardinals' Shelby Miller came in third.

Puig certainly grabbed the most headlines of any rookie this year. In his big league debut, Puig had two hits and ended the game with a brilliant catch-and-throw from the warning track to first base for a double play.

From then on, his presence seemed to spark the Dodgers, who turned their season around shortly after Puig's arrival. Puig finished the season with a .319 average and 19 homers in 104 games.

Offensively, it's hard to argue with Puig's dominance among rookie hitters. He finished second in average among players with at least 200 plate appearances, and his .391 on-base percentage and .534 slugging percentage were tops among all first-year players.

But Fernandez -- a candidate for the NL Cy Young Award, which will be announced on Wednesday at 3 p.m. PT on MLB Network -- had a similarly dominant season on the mound, going 12-6 with a 2.19 ERA in 28 starts.

Puig and Fernandez met just one time this season, on Aug. 19 in Miami, where Puig went 0-for-3 with a strikeout.

Puig's second-place finish means the Dodgers drought without a Rookie of the Year Award winner extends to 17 seasons. Todd Hollandsworth won the award with Los Angeles in 1996 -- the fifth-straight Dodgers player to do so at the time -- but the club hasn't had a winner since.

With awards season in full swing, a pair of Dodgers still have a chance to take home hardware this offseason. In addition to NL Cy Young Award candidate Kershaw, Don Mattingly is one of three finalists for NL Manager of the Year, which will be unveiled Tuesday at 3 PT on MLB Network.