As I was searching through the ranks and looking over the stat lines of some top performers this year, I started to notice a trend of sophomore names popping out near the tops of each position, guys like Brenton Doyle in the outfield, or Zach Neto and Elly De La Cruz at shortstop. Notably, there were some high performing rookies that were missing from the tops of these lists, either due to performance (like James Outman) or due to long injuries (like Triston Casas, Josh Jung and Matt McLain).

RISERS

I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t know how much to believe in Brenton Doyle’s minor league numbers. He wasn’t regarded as highly as fellow Rockies minor leaguers like Zac Veen or Ryan Vilade, who were first and second round picks, respectively, but he put up better numbers than almost anyone else in the system. And, maybe, that’s because he was always old for the level he was at? He was 21 in Rookie Ball, 23 in High-A, 24 in Double-A and 25 for 12 games in Triple-A (the lost 2020 season due to covid may have kept him from coming up in 2023 instead of last year). And then, when he was called up to the big leagues last year, he looked like someone who had never really been challenged at any level…until now. He struck out 151 times in only 431 plate appearances, with his 35% strikeout rate the highest of all hitters with 400 or more plate appearances last year. So I think it was okay that, coming into this season, expectations were low for Doyle. Instead, Doyle has done what he did at all those other stops – perform. He still has a high strikeout rate, but it is 8.7% lower and, instead of leading the league, is merely the 29th highest amongst qualified hitters. His strikeout rate is not the only thing to improve, either. His walk rate is higher (from 5.1% to 8%), he’s lowered his ground ball rate (46.9% to 41.3%) and raised his fly ball rate (34.7% to 40.2%), raised his barrel rate from 8.7% to 11% (that’s a top 25% rate), raised his hard-hit rate from 35% to 42.5%, dropped his chase rate from 32.2% to 29.9%, while raising his contact rate from 66.4% to 73%. He also dropped his swinging strike rate 3.8%, which has led to the lowered strikeout rate and contributed to a higher contact rate. To top all of that off, he has been an absolutely elite defensive centerfielder, though he may not win a gold glove in center, but that’s just because Jacob Young out in Washington has put on an absolute fielding clinic out there this year. He might be able to sneak into the 30-homer/30-steals club this year, but, even if he doesn’t, this year should be the first of many 25/25 seasons to come.

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