The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year Award

The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year Award was presented annually by The Sporting News to a player in Minor League Baseball deemed to have had the most outstanding season. It was awarded annually starting in 1936, and was last known to have been awarded in 2007.

The first winner of the award, Johnny Vander Meer, subsequently pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) and is best known for pitching back-to-back no-hitters in 1938. Several winners of the award are inductees of the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Johnny Bench, Vladimir Guerrero, Derek Jeter, Pedro Martínez, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, and Phil Rizzuto. Two players won the award twice: Gene Conley (1951, 1953) and Sandy Alomar Jr. (1988, 1989). There was one tie, occurring in 1988 when Alomar Jr. shared the honor with Gary Sheffield. Each winner of the award went on to play in MLB, with the exception of Jason Stokes, who won the award in 2002 while in Class A and later reached the Triple-A level.

Source:

• Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year Award
• USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award
• Topps Minor League Player of the Year Award