Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager and Detroit Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer won rookie of the year honors in their respective leagues on Monday night. Both were highly deserving of the honors.

Seager joined Mike Piazza (1993) and Raul Mondesi (1994) as Dodgers who won unanimously the award. Fulmer became the third Tigers pitcher to win, joining Mark Fidrych (1976) and Justin Verlander (2006).

What made Seager great?

Seager took a highly aggressive approach against pitches over the middle-third of the plate, height-wise (we’d often refer to these as “mistake pitches”). He swung at them 67 percent of the time, which was the ninth-highest rate in MLB.

And when he made contact, he did significant damage. His .376 batting average against those pitches was third-highest in the National League, behind D.J. LeMahieu (.412) and Christian Yelich (.377).

Hand in hand with that, Seager was one of the game’s premier fastball hitters. He hit .348 against fastballs (including sinkers and cutters), the sixth-highest batting average in the majors.

-- Mark Simon

Seager’s best moments

First HR in Dodgers-Giants rivalry: April 16 (Javier Lopez)

The youngster made his first significant contribution to the age-old rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers with an eighth-inning home run to cut the Giants’ lead from 4-1 to 4-3. At 21 years, 355 days old, Seager became the youngest Dodger to homer against the Giants since 20-year-old Adrian Beltre in 1999.

Game-tying HR in ninth with two outs: Sept. 25 (Adam Ottavino)

With the Dodgers trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the inning, and Andrew Toles and Justin Turner already strikeout victims in the inning, Seager lifted a 2-0 pitch deep down the right-field line to tie the game up. The Dodgers would win in the 10th -- there’s a reason Seager is a MVP finalist as well.

Postseason power: Oct. 7-9 (Max Scherzer, Tanner Roark)

Seager hit a first-inning home run in each of the Dodgers’ first two postseason games this year. He was the youngest Dodgers player to hit a postseason home run and the youngest Dodgers player with multiple home runs in a single postseason.

-- Sarah Langs

What made Fulmer great?

Fulmer spent most of the season with an ERA in the 2s because he had three pitches highly capable of getting a hitter out -- fastball, slider, splitter.

Fulmer’s excellence this season was largely due to an 15-start stretch that began in late May and ended in mid-August. He posted an AL-best 1.43 ERA in that span. According to Elias Sports Bureau research, Fulmer started that run by becoming the second pitcher in major league history to make four straight scoreless starts of at least six innings while allowing three hits or fewer. The other pitcher was Jake Arieta.

Fulmer’s success coincided with increased use of his splitter, a pitch some refer to as a changeup. He threw the pitch 6 percent of the time in his first four starts (6.52 ERA) and 19 percent of the time the rest of the season (2.58 ERA). Opponents hit .175 with a .427 OPS against it. The latter ranked third-best among American League pitchers with at least 15 starts and 100 changeups thrown. They also hit .197 against his slider.

-- Mark Simon

Fulmer’s best moments

MLB debut: April 29 at Twins

Fulmer went five innings, allowing two earned runs for the win in his debut. Coincidentally, that start came against a fellow former first-round pick by a New York team in Phil Hughes (23rd overall by the Yankees, 2004). Fulmer struck out four and showed flashes of someone who could make a name for himself in 2016.

Career-high 11 Ks: May 21 vs Rays

Fulmer’s fifth career start doubled as his first career home start, and he put on a show for the Detroit crowd. He recorded 11 strikeouts over seven innings, the most strikeouts by a Tigers rookie in a single game in 37 years (Pat Underwood, 1979). This was the first of an eight-start run in which he allowed three runs and pitched to an 0.53 ERA.

First career shutout: Aug. 14 at Rangers

Fulmer went the distance for his first career shutout against one of the most potent offenses in the AL. Fulmer was the first Tigers rookie with a shutout since Justin Verlander in 2006. His nine strikeouts in the game were the most by a Tigers rookie in a shutout since Jeff Robinson had nine in 1987.

-- Sarah Langs