2024 Pat Listach Award: Nolan Jones

Despite being traded midseason, Nolan Jones won the Pat Listach Award as the league's top rookie, becoming the second consecutive No. 1 overall pick to take home the award.

It's the 3rd time in 4 years that the top overall pick has won the Listach. Hillsborough's Spencer Strider ran away with the 2023 award and Ke'Bryan Hayes won it with Blue Ridge in the pandemic-influenced 2021 season.

Jones beat out Poovey Farms SP Cole Ragans in the closest Listach vote since 2022 when Tucson SP Tanner Houck edged Vancouver 1B Frank Schwindel, also by four points.

	PAT LISTACH AWARD	1st	2nd	3rd	PTS
1	Nolan Jones, PHI-LIV	4	2	1	27
2	Cole Ragans, POO	3	2	2	23
3	Matt McLain, EP	1	2	3	14
4	Luke Raley, SCS	1	2	1	12
5	Yainer Diaz, SF		1		3
6	Cristopher Sanchez, VAN			1	1
-	Gunnar Henderson, EC			1	1

Points are awarded on a 5-3-1 basis: 5 points for 1st place, 3 points for 2nd place, and 1 point for 3rd place.

Jones and Ragans appeared on the most ballots, 7 of the 9 cast. Jones edged Ragans with 4 1st place votes to 3. Both received 2 2nd place votes and Ragans won 2 3rd place votes to Jones' 1.

El Paso SS/2B Matt McLain finished 3rd with 14 points. He appeared on 6 of the 9 ballots, earning 1 1st place vote, 2 2nds, and the most 3rd place votes: 3.

The oldest rookie to receive votes, 30-year-old CF/1B Luke Raley of Sardine City finished right behind McLain with 12 points. He appeared on 6 ballots, earning 1 1st place vote, 2 2nds, and 1 3rd place nod.

After the top 4, the rest of the field each received a single vote of varying support. SF C Yainer Diaz earned 1 2nd place vote for finish 5th with 3 points. Vancouver SP Cristopher Sanchez was the only other pitcher to receive a vote, earning a 3rd place nod. Emprie City 3B/SS Gunnar Henderson also received 1 3rd place vote to tie Sanchez for 6th.

Jones was drafted by Philly with the top overall pick and was traded to Livingston in early July along with a 7th round pick for SP prospect Andrew Painter and a 4th round pick. He played 93 games for the Green Rage and 67 games for the Lords of Swing, compiling a .302/.389/.558 line, with 36 HR, 89 RBI, 123 runs.

It's the 3rd Listach Award for the Philly franchise, following CF Mike Trout in 2013 and SP Travis Wood in 2011. It's also technically the 1st Listach Award for the Livingston franchise.

Of the 7 rookies to receive support, only Raley was not a 1st round selection. He was chosen in the 3rd round, 55th overall in 2024. Henderson was drafted in 1st round of 2023, the first prospect off the board at No. 7 overall. The rest of the field was selected in the 1st round of the 2024 draft: Jones, No. 1; Ragans, No. 4; McLain, No. 7; Diaz, No. 8; and, Sanchez, No. 13.

The Pat Listach Award recognizes the DMBL's top rookie. That means any player who has qualified for DMBL that season. In 2024, that would have been 200 plate appearances for batters, 10 starts for starting pitchers, or 50 IP/30 appearances for relievers. So, it's conceivable that a player could appear for a number of seasons in MLB before qualifying for DMBL.