The Kids Are Alright: Rookie Roll Call
The first-year players worth watching.
Rookie day, and the class has real bats and real arms. Munetaka Murakami and Esmerlyn Valdez are neck and neck at the top of the OPS board, while a trio of young arms is quietly posting ERAs the veterans would take. Here's who the future looks like.
The rookie class
Top first-year players, hitters by OPS (minimum real playing time).
Munetaka Murakami leads the rookie hitters at a .888 OPS with 29 homers, giving the White Sox real power, and Pittsburgh's Esmerlyn Valdez matches that .888 mark despite a much lighter home-run count. On the mound, San Diego's Bradgley Rodriguez owns the group's best number at a 2.04 ERA, with Arizona's Brandyn Garcia (2.48) and Cleveland's Parker Messick (2.54) close behind.
Munetaka Murakami
Chicago White Sox0.888OPS rookie›AVG .225 · HR 29 · OPS 0.88858 RBI · 1 SBOPS0.888above avg
Esmerlyn Valdez
Pittsburgh Pirates0.888OPS rookie›AVG .245 · HR 14 · OPS 0.88841 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.888above avg
Cole Carrigg
Colorado Rockies0.836OPS rookie›AVG .282 · HR 5 · OPS 0.83634 RBI · 7 SBOPS0.836above avg
TJ RumfieldColorado Rockies0.818OPS rookie›AVG .291 · HR 13 · OPS 0.81860 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.818above avg
Kevin McGonigle
Detroit Tigers0.810OPS rookie›AVG .284 · HR 13 · OPS 0.81053 RBI · 12 SBOPS0.810above avg
Brandyn Garcia
Arizona Diamondbacks2.48ERA rookie›ERA 2.48 · WHIP 0.83 · IP 36.1GS 0 · 0 W · 42 KFORM88elite
Bradgley Rodriguez
San Diego Padres2.04ERA rookie›ERA 2.04 · WHIP 1.05 · IP 57.1GS 4 · 3 W · 61 KFORM84elite
Parker Messick
Cleveland Guardians2.54ERA rookie›ERA 2.54 · WHIP 1.03 · IP 149GS 25 · 9 W · 152 KFORM79elite
Stats via the MLB Stats API. Colors, form scores and power rankings are Baseball Lens's own.