With the Dodgers and Padres taking part in the two-game Seoul Sequence in South Korea on March 20-21, the 2024 MLB common season can be upon us earlier than we all know it. (Full Opening Day motion is about for March 28). So immediately, we proceed our weekly sequence of season previews, breaking down main storylines from the angle of all six divisions.
Right now: The must-watch participant in every division.
The Dodgers are probably the most well-known sports activities groups on the planet, and among the best. They’ve made the playoffs yearly for greater than a decade, in spite of everything. However while you hear the Dodgers are coming to your city, the celebrities are going to be out. You need to see Shohei. You need to see Mookie. You need to see Freddie. You need to see that electrical expertise.
Right now, in our 2024 MLB Season Preview sequence, we have a look at the participant in every division who’s probably the most must-watch star. This doesn’t essentially imply one of the best participant; Paul Goldschmidt gained the NL MVP Award two years in the past, however few would describe the low-key, humble Goldschmidt as probably the most electrical participant within the sport. We’re speaking concerning the participant — normally a younger participant — who you completely can not take your eyes off. Sure guys seem like they have been born to play this sport. Right here’s one of the best model of that man in every division.
Hey, no stress child, however it is a division that options:
And but, I’ve chosen you, Jackson Holliday, because the must-see participant. I want you luck together with your profession.
However nonetheless: I’m undecided baseball’s fairly prepared for Holliday. MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 prospect has every part. He’s massive and robust, like his dad, but additionally lithe and agile, capable of play shortstop from Day One for a group that’s seeking to enhance upon a 101-win season. He has light-tower energy and a constant hit instrument. He has the batting eye of a grizzled vet, regardless that he simply turned 20. The Orioles are stacked with younger expertise, extra younger expertise than they even fairly know what to do with, however the normal consensus is that Holliday could be higher than all of them. The Orioles are loaded. However they haven’t had anyone like this since … properly, one other son of a well-known father who broke into the bigs with the Orioles and by no means appeared again. The one actual distinction could find yourself being that they provide this man a couple of extra days off.
Main as much as his historic contract extension earlier this month, Witt’s ascension to the highest shelf of MLB gamers could have snuck up on some individuals. The No. 2 total decide within the 2019 Draft didn’t put up massive numbers in Rookie ball that summer time, then misplaced the 2020 season to the pandemic. So he had just one full yr within the Minors — albeit a wonderful one — earlier than reaching Kansas Metropolis in 2022.
However his rookie yr, regardless that he completed fourth in AL Rookie of the 12 months voting, felt like a reasonable step ahead fairly than an enormous one. He had strong numbers, however nothing that blew your hair again, and his defensive points have been well-documented. That’s the factor about superstars, although: Simply give them time, and the expertise will at all times win out. Witt shored up his protection final yr as his offensive numbers soared throughout the board. Even then, it was a gradual climb, month by month. By the tip of the yr, he appeared like he was simply getting began.
He’s solely 23 and appears like an All-Star, however that’s the factor about Witt: He simply now’s beginning to look totally snug. So watch what occurs when he explodes. The Royals are about to turn into a sport that each residence group’s followers circle on their calendars.
You could vaguely keep in mind that, for greater than 20 years, the Mariners didn’t make the playoffs. It was a entire factor! However the minute all of us knew, collectively, in a approach that was type of unstated, that that drought was about to finish? When Julio Rodríguez was within the beginning lineup on Opening Day in 2022. You can simply see it, in the best way he carried himself, in the best way he appeared to be floating above the grass a little bit bit, in the best way he appeared like he’d been manning heart subject for this group for many years … you might inform that no group with a participant like that was going to remain down for very lengthy.
He introduced them again to the postseason that very yr, and whereas the Mariners fell brief final yr, it actually wasn’t due to Julio, who darned close to carried them throughout the end line by himself. You construct entire franchises round guys like this for a purpose, and the Mariners get to say they’ve acquired Julio on their roster via a minimum of 2029. Julio is just simply beginning to scratch the floor of what he’s able to, which is especially spectacular contemplating for about two months final yr he was among the best gamers in baseball. The one approach you’ll be able to decelerate Julio is by making a statue out of him … which the Mariners will completely do, sometime.
There are some pleasant gamers to look at on this division — each time I see Bryce Harper I need to go flying across the bases as my helmet flies off behind me — however let’s not overcomplicate this. Acuña grew to become the primary participant in MLB historical past to hit greater than 40 homers and steal greater than 70 bases in a season final yr.
With the attainable exception of a triple within the hole (and the occasional hit-and-run), there aren’t any extra thrilling offensive performs in baseball than a house run and a stolen base, and Acuña is one of the best within the sport at each. A leadoff man who steals bases like Tim Raines and hits homers like Mike Schmidt? What may probably be extra thrilling than that? Oh, additionally, he led the Majors in runs and hits and OBP and whole bases as properly final yr. Wherever you look on a baseball subject, you’ll discover Acuña doing one thing spectacular.
One in all my favourite moments of the 2023 season was when, with Shohei Ohtani standing on second base after a double, De La Cruz touched Ohtani’s arm, as if to say, “Are you actual? How will you be actual?” It was unhappy as a result of the very subsequent day we discovered Ohtani wouldn’t be pitching once more, however it was additionally exceptional as a result of typically while you watch De La Cruz, you ask your self the identical factor: How is that this man actual? De La Cruz seems to be like a baseball participant you’d create in a online game, one who’s simply nice at every part, who has the type of bodily instruments that actually tower over everybody else’s.
However one of many causes De La Cruz is so must-watch in 2024 is that, within the macro sense, he didn’t actually put all of it collectively in 2023. He really had a below-average OPS+ for the yr (89), and by some means smacked solely 13 homers regardless of a capability to hit the ball to the moon. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was an enormous purpose for that — 144 to 35, yikes — however that’s the type of factor a man with Elly’s expertise figures out as he will get older and will get extra reps. He’s a participant who seems to be not like anybody else within the sport. Watching him remodel that into manufacturing, with out dropping what makes Elly Elly, can be a riveting nightly occasion.
Even with Ohtani restricted to being a DH in 2024, it’s a must to decide him, sure? How may you not? Focusing solely on hitting, doesn’t it appear attainable he’s going to hit 50 homers? He had 44 final yr in solely 135 video games. Are we 60? Is he going to go 30-30? In that lineup, what number of RBIs is he going to get?
It has been superb, transformative, actually, to look at him be a terrific pitcher and a terrific hitter the final three seasons, and we’ll get to see him try this once more in 2025. However simply doing one factor? Doesn’t it make that ceiling even larger? I don’t know a single one who can wait to search out out.