Corbin Carroll is the current frontrunner for the NL Rookie of the Year. Right now he has a 3.1 WAR, he's batting .308, has 13 homers, 33 RBIs and 19 stolen bases. What I'm saying is I can see why.
Going into the season, people were already hoisting the Mike Trout comparisons onto Corbin Carroll. He's a prized draft pick with a ton of perks. His initial callup was uneventful but slightly promising. He went from being a high-ranking prospect to being re-upped for a while. And now, in his first full season in the bigs, he's absolutely dominating, making his team into a talking point overnight and becoming the focal point of a team that was planning on primarily relying on Ketel Marte and Christian Walker. This is mountain-moving energy that you don't see often, and now I realize why the D-Backs were so quick to lock in Carroll for the rest of the decade.
It really is fantastic seeing so many aspects of this Diamondbacks team come into focus. Ketel Marte is having his best season since his 2019 ASG year. Gabriel Moreno, even as Carson Kelly seems to be back soon, is making a case for himself as the D-Backs' primary catching option going forward, while hitting .280 with 23 RBIs. Geraldo Perdomo is still having an excellent season, proving that his struggles at the plate last year were just an early response to major league pitching. Both Emmanuel Rivera and Dominic Fletcher are trying to edge themselves into positions that seemed set in stone going into this year, with Rivera currently having more success. And the already-durable bullpen is about to get Joe Mantiply back. This, with Carroll as the cherry on top, is an excellent sign for the D-Backs.
They're also just doing very well in a year where their three competitors have all struggled in different circumstances. The Giants struggled to live up to their 2021 season, the Padres struggled right from the getgo to get all of their working parts to function at the same time, and the Dodgers, even while doing well, are now dropping games to the Yankees, Phillies and, most notably, the Reds right as they get Elly de la Cruz up. I'm not saying the D-Backs are in 1st by default, though I am intrigued by the prospect of how well they'd be doing if some of these teams were a bit less disappointing.
Still, I am also excited to see if Corbin Carroll becomes THE guy for these D-Backs teams, and makes them more of a threat in subsequent years than Trout has made the Angels.
Coming Tonight: His brother may be having the bigger RBI season, but he's finally branching out on his own in an equally-awesome lineup.
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