won in 1995, the first of several players to win with past professional baseball experience in
Nippon Professional Baseball. From 1947 through 1956, each BBWAA voter used discretion as to who qualified as a rookie. In 1957, the term was first defined as someone with fewer than 75
at-bats or 45
innings pitched in any previous Major League season. Since 1980, each voter names three rookies: a first-place choice is given five points, a second-place choice three points, and a third-place choice one point. The award goes to the player who receives the most overall points.
Edinson Vólquez received three second-place votes in 2008 balloting despite no longer being a rookie under the award's definition. The award has drawn criticism in recent years because several players with experience in
Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) have won the award, such as
Hideo Nomo in 1995,
Kazuhiro Sasaki in 2000,
Ichiro Suzuki in 2001, and
Shohei Ohtani in 2018. The current definition of rookie status for the award is based only on Major League experience, but some feel that past NPB players are not true rookies because of their past professional experience. Others, however, believe it should make no difference since the first recipient and the award's namesake played for the
Negro leagues before his MLB career and thus could also not be considered a "true rookie". This issue arose in 2003 when
Hideki Matsui narrowly lost the AL award to
Ángel Berroa.
Jim Souhan of the
Minneapolis Star Tribune said he did not see Matsui as a rookie in 2003 because "it would be an insult to the Japanese league to pretend that experience didn't count."
The Japan Times ran a story in 2007 on the labeling of
Daisuke Matsuzaka,
Kei Igawa, and
Hideki Okajima as rookies, saying "[t]hese guys aren't rookies." Past winners such as Jackie Robinson,
Don Newcombe, and Sam Jethroe had professional experience in the
Negro leagues. ==Winners==