The Rookies Worth Knowing By Name
The first-year players worth watching.
It's rookie day, and the class has a clear headliner. Munetaka Murakami is hitting like a veteran star for the White Sox, while a handful of younger names are starting to climb. Some are future fixtures; some are riding a good few weeks.
The rookie class
Top first-year players, hitters by OPS (minimum real playing time).
Murakami leads the first-year bats at a .938 OPS with 20 homers, the rare rookie already running with the elite hitters. San Francisco's Bryce Eldridge is right behind at .931, and on the mound the Athletics' Gage Jump tops the rookie arms with a 2.37 ERA.
Munetaka Murakami
Chicago White Sox0.938OPS rookie›AVG .240 · HR 20 · OPS 0.93841 RBI · 1 SBOPS0.938elite
Bryce Eldridge
San Francisco Giants0.931OPS rookie›AVG .308 · HR 6 · OPS 0.93116 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.931elite
TJ Rumfield
Colorado Rockies0.830OPS rookie›AVG .278 · HR 11 · OPS 0.83038 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.830above avg
Henry Bolte
Athletics0.825OPS rookie›AVG .317 · HR 2 · OPS 0.8259 RBI · 7 SBOPS0.825above avg
Kevin McGonigle
Detroit Tigers0.818OPS rookie›AVG .281 · HR 6 · OPS 0.81826 RBI · 9 SBOPS0.818above avg
Gage JumpAthletics2.37ERA rookie›ERA 2.37 · WHIP 0.99 · IP 30.1GS 5 · 3 W · 26 KFORM82elite
Bradgley Rodriguez
San Diego Padres2.10ERA rookie›ERA 2.10 · WHIP 1.19 · IP 34.1GS 3 · 1 W · 32 KFORM77elite
Walbert Ureña
Los Angeles Angels2.60ERA rookie›ERA 2.60 · WHIP 1.35 · IP 62.1GS 11 · 4 W · 58 KFORM65above avg
Rookies breaking out
Rookies with the biggest OPS jump this week.
The Mets' A.J. Ewing made the biggest jump this week, up 62 points to a .719 OPS. The Athletics' Henry Bolte keeps trending up too, adding 44 points to reach .825 and pulling double duty as one of the better rookie bats overall.
A.J. Ewing
New York MetsOPS 0.657→0.719 (+0.062) rookie›AVG .261 · HR 2 · OPS 0.71912 RBI · 7 SBOPS0.719average- Henry BolteAthleticsOPS 0.781→0.825 (+0.044) rookie›AVG .317 · HR 2 · OPS 0.8259 RBI · 7 SBOPS0.825above avg
Sam AntonacciChicago White SoxOPS 0.747→0.789 (+0.042) rookie›AVG .286 · HR 3 · OPS 0.78918 RBI · 9 SBOPS0.789above avg
Carter Jensen
Kansas City RoyalsOPS 0.682→0.724 (+0.042) rookie›AVG .238 · HR 9 · OPS 0.72438 RBI · 1 SBOPS0.724average
Nathan Church
St. Louis CardinalsOPS 0.672→0.713 (+0.041) rookie›AVG .263 · HR 5 · OPS 0.71319 RBI · 4 SBOPS0.713average
Stats via the MLB Stats API. Colors, form scores and power rankings are Baseball Lens's own.