As the brand new 12 months approaches, it’s time to sit up for the 2024 season and the groups, gamers and storylines we’re trying ahead to. With that in thoughts, we requested seven MLB.com writers about gamers they’re excited to look at subsequent season. The record supplied a mix of established superstars, two potential influence rookies and a veteran who may discover himself in Cooperstown sometime.
Listed below are the seven gamers that we’re trying ahead to seeing in motion throughout the 2024 season.
A generational expertise becoming a member of essentially the most storied franchise in sports activities? Get your popcorn prepared. Soto has confirmed himself on the massive stage repeatedly, from his 5 homers and .554 slugging share as a 20- and 21-year-old within the 2019 postseason with the World Sequence-champion Nationals to profitable the 2022 House Run Derby amid swirling commerce rumors.
What can we imply by generational? Soto is certainly one of six gamers with a number of seasons of at the very least 30 homers and 100 walks earlier than turning 25. The others: Ted Williams (three such seasons), Mel Ott, Eddie Mathews, Mickey Mantle and Jimmie Foxx. Soto is certainly one of simply 44 gamers to amass at the very least 3,000 plate appearances via his age-24 season, a selective group already, requiring a younger debut and endurance. His 157 OPS+ ranks fifth amongst that group via his age-24 season, behind solely Ty Cobb (176), Mike Trout (170), Mantle (166) and Foxx (166).
Soto is a three-time All-Star and simply turned 25. On Opening Day, he’ll play for his third MLB workforce. Soto would be the first participant to make at the very least three All-Star groups and alter groups twice all earlier than turning 26, in line with the Elias Sports activities Bureau. No person had ever been traded twice this younger whereas being this good. And now we get the enjoyment of seeing a 3rd fanbase change into enthralled with Soto’s sport. Baseball is one of the best.
We’d like yet another season of Greinke.
Probably the greatest pitchers of his technology and some of the attention-grabbing males within the baseball world deserves to cap off his profession with certainly one of pitching’s biggest milestones: becoming a member of the three,000-strikeout membership. Greinke has 2,979 Ok’s. He is simply 21 away. And also you could not choose a extra deserving pitcher to do it. Reaching 3,000 strikeouts may put Greinke excessive as a Corridor of Famer. And after him, Clayton Kershaw (2,944 Ok’s) and doubtlessly Gerrit Cole (2,152 Ok’s), we’d not see one other 3,000-strikeout pitcher for some time.
It regarded like Greinke may retire, however now the newest studies are that the 40-year-old is able to pitch one other 12 months. Let’s discover him a workforce and make Greinke 3,000 occur. Greinke getting his 3,000th strikeout could be probably the greatest moments of the 2024 season.
Skenes has just about all the pieces you possibly can need in a pitcher: an imposing, sturdy body (6-foot-6, 235 kilos), an influence fastball, a wipeout breaking pitch (his slider), a strong changeup and the management to make all that stuff work. He was overwhelming at LSU, the place he received a School World Sequence title, and he flashed his top-of-the-rotation skill throughout a quick professional debut this previous summer season. Skenes has already moved shortly within the Pirates’ system, and so long as he’s wholesome, he figures to face a very good probability of reaching Pittsburgh by midseason. At any time when that occurs, there might be a number of eyes on a pitcher who may lead the subsequent technology of MLB aces — and maybe assist deliver playoff baseball again to the Metal Metropolis.
Few MLB offseasons adopted the futures of particular person gamers fairly like this one. From the Ohtani sweepstakes that ended with the two-way famous person signing with the Dodgers to Soto getting traded to the Yankees, the sheer star expertise on the transfer has dominated headlines.
Subsequent up on that record was Yamamoto, the Japanese phenom who signed a record-breaking 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers. After weeks of intense competitors for the right-hander’s providers from different huge market groups just like the Mets, Yankees and Giants, Yamamoto finally agreed to a cope with the Dodgers mere days after Ohtani formally signed with the membership. The 25-year-old ace is among the most embellished pitchers in Japanese baseball historical past and had a prolonged record of suitors seeking to signal him this winter.
The Dodgers are the fortunate winner for the Yamamoto sweepstakes and ought to be rewarded with a possible Cy Younger Award candidate who blends elite stuff with plus-plus command. With Ohtani sidelined as a pitcher for subsequent season, Yamamoto could be the single-most watched pitcher in 2024 — and for good cause.
He hits the ball the toughest — or simply about. This 119.2 mph house run in opposition to the Guardians in September represented the third-highest exit velocity on any batted ball final season and the second-highest on a homer, trailing this no-doubter from Nationwide League MVP Ronald Acuña Jr.
Sure, De La Cruz is a flawed participant. His 55.3% groundball fee is far too excessive, and his 33.7% strikeout fee is quite ugly. Nonetheless, he’s nonetheless simply 21 years previous. There may be loads of time for him to regulate and enhance. Seeing how he can construct upon his rookie 12 months ought to be atop any baseball fan’s record of most anticipated issues for 2024.
Strider’s strikeout stuff is just unparalleled amongst Main League starters. The Braves right-hander fanned 281 batters in 186 2/3 innings in 2023, main all of MLB in strikeouts and setting a Trendy Period single-season franchise document within the course of. There’s no denying Strider wasn’t at his greatest in 2023 — he posted a 3.86 ERA regardless of robust Statcast metrics — however the 25-year-old is in a category of his personal amongst MLB starters.
For one factor, Strider throws simply three pitches: a fastball that averaged 97.2 mph with robust vertical motion, a slider with a ridiculous 55.3% whiff fee and a little-used changeup that held hitters to a .122 common and a .184 slugging share in 2023. His 36.8% strikeout fee led all qualifying starters by a big margin — Tyler Glasnow was second at 33.4% — and the one 4 gamers forward of Strider in that metric have been elite relievers: Félix Bautista, Aroldis Chapman, Josh Hader and Devin Williams.
Not solely is he backed by a enjoyable (and stacked) Braves lineup, however Strider has a practical shot to hit the 300-strikeout mark in 2024 (Cole and Justin Verlander in 2019 have been MLB’s most up-to-date 300-Ok pitchers). Even when he doesn’t attain that quantity, Strider is all the time a pleasure to look at, and 2024 ought to be one other nice 12 months for him.
There aren’t many gamers within the sport who, on any given day, have the potential to smash a 500-foot house run and throw a runner out on the plate with an arm energy over 100 mph. Add pace on the bottom paths, and also you’ve acquired the makings of a star.
Jones matches that profile. In 106 video games final season, the 25-year-old posted a 138 OPS+with 20 house runs and 20 steals. His barrel fee, in line with Statcast, was 15.7%. He wants to chop down on the strikeouts, however he posted a powerful 12.5% stroll fee.
Defensively, regardless of being positioned into “on-the-job coaching” in left area (he primarily performed third base within the Minors), Jones set a franchise document with 19 outfield assists due to his MLB-best 98.9 mph common arm energy.
Jones’ all-around excellence in his first season with the Rockies made historical past: he grew to become the first rookie in AL/NL historical past to hit 20 homers, steal 20 bases and document 19 outfield assists in a season.
It’ll be enjoyable to see what this man can do over a full marketing campaign.