Diamondbacks prospect Jordan Lawlar joins a rookie class still seeking its standard-bearer

Sports

add

A new 22-year-old threw his hat into the ring on Monday. Jordan Lawlar, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ top prospect, was called up from Triple-A, and even though he wasn’t immediately in the starting lineup, he was immediately thrust into a wide-open competition for National League Rookie of the Year. He’s getting a late start, but unlike other recent seasons, starting late doesn’t leave him far behind.

This season’s rookie class has yet to really establish itself. Not the way we’re now used to, at least. As the game has skewed younger in recent years, each season has come to be defined at least in part by its new arrivals.

Paul Skenes and Jackson Merrill showed up and dominated last year. Gunnar Henderson and Corbin Carroll were heralded rookies the year before. Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt Jr., Adley Rutschman, and Spencer Strider had their first full seasons in 2022.

Those were big names before they were big leaguers. They went from touted to anticipated to celebrated, all in their first full season. And at a time when more attention than ever is focused on prospects, each new wave of talent carries the weight of those expectations.

We’re still waiting for this season’s marquee rookies to establish themselves.

“The difference between transitioning from the minors to the big leagues, being in The Show, it’s a real thing,” Milwaukee Brewers second-year standout Jackson Chourio said. “It’s a transition for anybody, especially coming into a new place at this level.”

So far this season, Detroit Tigers starter Jackson Jobe has been inconsistent, Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews hasn’t hit, and Los Angeles Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki has walked too many batters. Hot starts have faded for Boston Red Sox second baseman Kristian Campbell and New York Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez, and Chicago Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw is already back in the minors. Texas Rangers first-round pick Kumar Rocker has an 8.10 ERA, Colorado Rockies flamethrower Chase Dollander has a 7.71, and Los Angeles Angels reliever Ryan Johnson went from making the Opening Day bullpen to being optioned all the way down to A ball.

The only rookie truly separating himself nearly a fifth of the way into the season is Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson, who is second only to Aaron Judge in Major League hits and leads all rookies with a 1.6 fWAR. The only other rookie position player with even half that WAR is Boston Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez, who was a backup before starter Connor Wong got hurt. The NL leaders in rookie WAR are Brewers starter Chad Patrick, Dodgers long reliever Ben Casparius, and Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin. Neither Patrick nor Casparius was particularly highly touted as a prospect, and Baldwin is lately on the bench most days now that Sean Murphy is healthy.

The best rookie ERA among starting pitchers belongs to Chicago White Sox right-hander Shane Smith, a Rule 5 pick. Second-best is Baltimore Orioles 35-year-old Tomoyuki Sugano, a veteran out of Japan. Those two have impressive numbers, but they don’t carry the prospect aura of the more highly anticipated players. It’s those touted prospects who arrive to some expectation of immediate success.

“I feel like that expectation is, like, only for fans,” Merrill said. “As a Padres fan, when a rookie comes up, you want them to do good immediately because it’s your team and you want help and impact. But baseball is so hard. You look at it from an outside perspective, I think a real baseball fan would know — that’s knowledgeable — that being a rookie is one of the hardest things to do and adjusting is one of the hardest things to do.”

There’s still ample time for this year’s rookie class to find its standard bearers and join the forefront of baseball’s youth movement. Plenty of standout rookies have needed a few weeks to get their bearings. Skenes and Carroll arrived more or less fully formed, but as rookies, Merrill had a .516 OPS from late April to early June, Henderson was hitting below .200 until mid-May, Rodriguez had a .544 OPS at the end of April, and Rutschman was a .206 hitter into July. Judge, Mike Trout, Austin Riley, José Ramírez and Kyle Tucker — among many others — were also slow starters in their first taste of the big leagues.

“It’s not my swing. It was my mind. It’s all mental,” Tigers All-Star Riley Greene said in 2022, after a so-so rookie season as one of the most highly touted prospects in baseball. “It was one of those things where it’s an easy fix and I got out of it. Thank God I did.”

Jobe had a good start Monday night, cutting his ERA from 4.88 to 4.32. Rocker, Dollander and Sasaki have had some strong starts within their underwhelming seasons (Braves rookie AJ Smith-Shawver has managed to mix occasional dominance with actual consistency). Campbell hasn’t hit much since mid-April, but the Red Sox believe in his bat enough to hit him cleanup. Dominguez has similarly slumped, but a three-homer game last week was a reminder of his tremendous potential.

Now, in comes Lawlar, the sixth overall draft pick in 2021 who played 14 big league games in 2023, missed most of last season due to injuries, and got off to a fast start in the minors this year.

“He’s a special, once-in-every-five-years type of player,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “That’s what he potentially can do.”

Turning potential into reality, that’s the trick. And we tend to remember the ones that do.

(Top photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

With no lottery luck, the Bulls have a plan, right? … Right?

Sports

Next

trending_flat

NHL Mock Draft 2025: Frondell to Chicago, Martone to Utah? Pronman projects Round 1

Sports