The Rookies Worth Watching in September
The first-year players worth watching.
The rookie class doesn't have a runaway star, but it has depth in both dugout corners. A Tigers bat leads the hitters, a pair of arms sit under a 2.30 ERA, and a Royals kid is quietly climbing. Here's the freshman board as the pennant races heat up.
The rookie class
Top first-year players, hitters by OPS (minimum real playing time).
Eduardo Valencia paces the rookie hitters at a .924 OPS for Detroit, with Jonah Cox close behind at .883, but the power belongs to others: Esmerlyn Valdez has 16 homers for Pittsburgh and Munetaka Murakami leads the group with 29 for the White Sox. On the mound, Bradgley Rodriguez owns the shiniest line at a 1.99 ERA for San Diego, with Brandyn Garcia (2.20) and Didier Fuentes (2.27) right there.
Eduardo Valencia
Detroit Tigers0.924OPS rookie›AVG .307 · HR 6 · OPS 0.92418 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.924elite
Jonah Cox
San Francisco Giants0.883OPS rookie›AVG .297 · HR 4 · OPS 0.88310 RBI · 9 SBOPS0.883above avg
Esmerlyn Valdez
Pittsburgh Pirates0.867OPS rookie›AVG .239 · HR 16 · OPS 0.86745 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.867above avg
TJ Rumfield
Colorado Rockies0.843OPS rookie›AVG .295 · HR 15 · OPS 0.84365 RBI · 0 SBOPS0.843above avg
Munetaka Murakami
Chicago White Sox0.827OPS rookie›AVG .211 · HR 29 · OPS 0.82759 RBI · 1 SBOPS0.827above avg
Brandyn Garcia
Arizona Diamondbacks2.20ERA rookie›ERA 2.20 · WHIP 0.80 · IP 41GS 0 · 0 W · 49 KFORM92elite
Bradgley Rodriguez
San Diego Padres1.99ERA rookie›ERA 1.99 · WHIP 1.07 · IP 63.1GS 4 · 3 W · 68 KFORM83elite
Parker Messick
Cleveland Guardians2.46ERA rookie›ERA 2.46 · WHIP 1.02 · IP 161GS 27 · 11 W · 161 KFORM80elite
Rookies breaking out
Rookies with the biggest OPS jump this week.
Carter Jensen is the one on the move, nudging his OPS up 35 points to .759 in Kansas City. Not a leaderboard number yet, but the arrow points the right way for the young Royal.
Carter Jensen
Kansas City RoyalsOPS 0.724→0.759 (+0.035) rookie›AVG .231 · HR 22 · OPS 0.75967 RBI · 2 SBOPS0.759above avg
Stats via the MLB Stats API. Colors, form scores and power rankings are Baseball Lens's own.