Aug. 29: The Diamondbacks have officially announced Carroll’s selection, with Luplow being optioned in a corresponding move.
Aug, 28: The Diamondbacks are planning on promoting outfield prospect Corbin Carroll for Monday’s game, reports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. Carroll is not currently on the club’s 40-man roster, though they already have a vacancy there. A corresponding move will be required to get him onto the active roster.
This will be something of a belated birthday present for the youngster, who just turned 22 years old a week ago. Selected with the 16th overall pick in the 2019 draft, Carroll has been one of the most intriguing prospect in Arizona’s system ever since. Baseball America ranked him 5th in the organization and 90th in all of baseball in 2020, before Carroll jumped to Arizona’s #1 slot in 2021. He’s currently ranked 5th overall by BA, 3rd by FanGraphs, while ESPN and Keith Law of The Athletic consider him the best prospect in the sport.
The fact that Carroll is so highly regarded is hardly surprising, given his tremendous performance on the field thus far in his career. After being drafted in 2019, at just 18 years of age, he got into 42 games between rookie ball and low-A, hitting .299/.409/.487 in that span. The pandemic wiped out the minors in 2020, but Carroll reportedly continued to impress at the club’s alternate training site that year. 2021 was a mostly lost season, as Carroll tore the capsule of his non-throwing shoulder, ending his campaign after just seven games.
However, Carroll has gotten right back on track here in 2022, showing no ill effects from the shoulder surgery he underwent last year. Through 58 Double-A games, he hit 16 home runs, stole 20 bases and walked in 14.8% of his plate appearances. His .313/.430/.643 batting line was 66% better than league average by measure of wRC+. He was promoted to Triple-A and has played 33 games there thus far, hitting seven more long balls, swiping 11 more bags and hitting .287/.408/.535, wRC+ of 135.
Defensively, Carroll has primarily played center field in the minors, though with some time in the corners as well. It’s unclear where the Diamondbacks intend to play Carroll in the majors, but they will have an embarrassment of young talent in the outfield either way. Alek Thomas, himself a highly regarded prospect coming into the year, was promoted in May and has been getting the lion’s share of playing time in center. He’s hit just .243/.294/.369 through his first 92 MLB games for an 84 wRC+, though his glovework has been highly rated across the board.
Beside Carroll and Thomas, the club has many options to fill out the remainder of its outfield picture. Daulton Varsho and Jake McCarthy are both having strong seasons as well and each comes with at least four years of club control beyond this one. Stone Garrett was also recently called up, having hit very well in a five-game showing so far. Jordan Luplow is also on hand due to his strong numbers against lefties. He’s slumped a bit in that regard this season but could be retained via arbitration for another two seasons if he still fits into Arizona’s plans. Assuming Carroll sticks with the big league club the rest of the season, he will earn just over a month of service time, putting him on track to reach free agency after the 2028 campaign, unless future optional assignments end up pushing that back.
It’s been a rough few years in the desert, with the D-Backs currently 59-67, likely to finish below .500 for a third straight season. However, they have already guaranteed themselves a record well ahead of last year’s 52-100 mark, with plenty of reasons to be excited about the future. Their stockpile of young, cheap and controllable outfield talent is perhaps the best reason to feel hopeful, with Carroll considered by many to be the most exciting of the bunch. Over the remaining few weeks of the schedule, the club will give him a chance to show his skills at the sport’s biggest stage and potentially lock down a place on the grass for years to come.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
It’s about time.
just looking at Corbin Carroll’s profile. 5’10” and 165 pounds but slugging 24 homeruns and just turning 22 years of age. he must have some sweet swing to generate that kind of power at such a young age. looks like the D-Backs might have a rising star on their hands.
I look at that size and that profile and say, watch out he may bust completely in the majors. Other than on the Astros for some reason, there aren’t a lot of examples of guys his size slugging like does. Good chance he’s been taking advantage of minor league pitchers’ inability to throw to his small strike zone, walking a lot and getting a bunch of meat balls, which he is selling out for. We’ll see what happens vs guys who can actually hit a spot and aren’t in the PCL, where you can pop the ball up and hit it out.
Listed weights of pro players are often not correct, often those weights haven’t been updated since draft day. Carroll very well might be 175-180 these days which is about mookie betts size who can obviously hit for some good power.
Pedroia, also.
Domingo, thanks for clarification, for those that need it. People need to realize those ‘size figures’, in some cases haven’t been updated since the day the player is signed. MLB could get much better in that area – as could certain publications.
BBREF lists Felix Bautista at 190lbs.
He’s not an ounce under 270. They certainly aren’t reliable
They need to ensure he keeps his ROY eligibility for next year.
why?
They would get a bonus pick if he finishes top 2 in ROTY voting.
It’s very unlikely he exhausts rookie eligibility. He’ll be on the roster for 5 weeks, or 35 days, and is unlikely to accumulate 130 at-bats given the glut of left-handed hitting outfielders with similar skill sets (McCarthy, Thomas, Varsho).
And lose a year of his service.
Dbacks have some young studs in the outfield. May have to trade a young player or two with the log jam.
@prestigeworldwide; agreed. And smart. Load up on young position players. Keep some and trade others for pitching.
Question. Is GM Hazen back? If not, and while he has been away, who has been overseeing baseball operations?
Jeff
Hazen never left. He has always been in charge, even when he worked more from home so he could help attend to his ailing wife and spend time with his sons. His wife’s celebration of life service was a couple of weeks ago and he is still fully engaged as GM.
@scottaz, I just researched this. Oh man, tragic. She was so young. Heart goes out to him and his kids. Thank you for sharing specifics.
Thanks Jeff. Hazen was a wonderful husband and father during that extremely difficult time, balanced/juggled work and family for a couple of years, then took the home leave during his wife’s last days to be with her and the boys more. I admire how he kept all those responsibilities in balance and perspective.
I agree!! Thomas, Carroll and Varsho….. sounds like McCarthy is headed to the bench.
Thomas has a great glove, but his bat has disappeared. McCarthy is hitting. I can see Carroll getting time in CF.
suffer
Like many or most position players, their raw talent carries them all or most of the way up to the majors, but then, unless they refine their stance or approach, holes in their swing show up in the majors and they start to fail, or as you put it their bat disappears. Everyone in the Dbacks organization has recognized that Thomas has several moving parts in his swing that could create holes. His feet move. He has a high leg kick. He “dives” into pitches, making him vulnerable to inside pitches. There is a lot of body movement in his swing (compare Carson Kelly’s quiet body for example). Etc. etc. it will be up to the Dback’s hitting coaches to refine his mechanics to cover those holes in his swing. Thomas certainly has the natural ability to succeed. If he takes coaching advice, makes changes, simplifies his swing, I still think he has a bright future and high upside.
I agree. I recently read where McCarthy talked about making adjustments, in particular ditching the leg kick he had. Said it helped him to simplify his approach. Success has followed. I hope the same thing for Thomas, because you can see the talent.
McCarthy has been the best performer at the plate of the group, if anything I think Thomas’ playing time gets affected the most.
And we both are correct, at least for tonight’s game. Thomas sits, McCarthy and Carroll play. Odd though, that Carroll is in RF and McCarthy in CF.
I think part of it is that they are showcasing McCarthy as a CFer for a possible off-season trade?
McCarthy is actually my favorite. I think he has a bulldog mentality that will drive him to succeed. Unfortunately, of the 4 he is the one with the weakest power projection, so I think that makes him most expendable.
BTW, this is the Dbacks lineup against a left-handed starter. Left handed bats Carroll, McCarthy and Rojas are still in the lineup, which isn’t ideal, but this points out the problem of having a 4 man left-handed hitting OF. Fortunately, with right-handed hitting 3b Emanuel Rivera, the Dbacks can have an all right-handed hitting IF and catcher to balance the lineup. Unfortunately with Luplow gone, left-handed hitting Josh Rojas is the DH, although he is on a long on-base streak so just as well.
At least Garrett is getting to play tonight, to help balance the OF a little.
It’s not ideal if you’re going purely for platoon matchups, but there aren’t enough spots on a MLB roster to accommodate platooning at every position.
FWIW, McCarthy has a 126 wRC+ vs LHP (117 wRC+ vs RHP) and Rojas has a 114 wRC+ vs LHP (112 wRC+ vs RHP); plus they aren’t playing Carroll against LHP strictly because they HAVE to, they see him as an everyday player and want to give him every opportunity to work on his issues (which currently includes facing LHP, which is expected to a degree from someone who has a little over 600 career PA).
Prestige
The “log jam” is the best kind of problem to have! The real problem is that they are all left-handed hitters, and there is a huge drop off to right-handed hitting OF alternatives on the roster.
But there is help on the near and distant horizon. This year’s draft #1-2 pick Druw Jones is a right-handed CF. But Dbacks may have a right-handed hitting OF as early as next year—forgotten former #1 prospect Kristian Robinson. He’s still young and hasn’t lost any of his immense potential talent, he’s just been sidelined by legal and VISA problems. If he gets those behind him (most likely in November), look for him on the big league roster by mid-season next year.
Until Carroll establishes himself as a mainstay in the outfield, it’s better for the team to hold onto Thomas, McCarthy, and Varsho.
Just in time to crush the Phillies!
I’m a big Gorbin Carrol.
Bye Luplow.
Love the new nickname man. Has a nice ring to it.
Dang, who pissed on your Corn Flakes?
Thanks. It was suggested to me by someone on another thread. I like it, and it’s more fitting.
“They remind me of a bunch of Labrador retrievers chasing down frisbees at the beach,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said”. Carroll now becomes the 4th member of “the labradors”! They all have elite speed, both on the base paths and in the OF. Carroll has the highest upside. McCarthy is batting .291. Varsho has 18 HR. Thomas plays highlight reel defense on a daily basis. The only drawback is that all 4 are left-handed hitters.
Elite pitching prospects are coming up next. Tommy Henry already has 5 big league starts and a .325 ERA! Brandon Pfaadt will be next. He has 170 Ks in 131 1/3 innings at AA and AAA this year, and a 2.70 ERA with 23 Ks in his first 3 AAA starts. Walston struck out 6 in 6 shutout innings in his last AA start. But ahead of him are Drey Jameson and his 100 MPH heaters, Ryne Nelson at AAA and Corbin Martin already in the big league bullpen this year.
Uhh paging Baltimore…. Time to bring up Gunnar.
He’ll be gone in a few years, how’s this for a traded infield, Paul Goldschmidt Jazz Chisholm and Dansby Swanson, DBACKS will always suck
Jack, try not to be shackled by the past. Ancient history is ancient history.
could be worse… could be a guardians fan. I assume you’re old enough for the dbacks world series win… I’m 35, Cleveland fan my whole life. 2016, game 7 was on my birthday.
you’ve at least experienced it once
I agree completely. Up and down for three years and the stat line is .205/.310/.380
And that’s being generous
So, a million times better than Travis Jankowski then?
Goldie wanted long term payday, can’t blame him and he’s sorely missed. But Dbacks were going younger and netted Carson Kelly, not a superstar but adequate and hard-to-find major league catcher. Did you forget that Jazz Chisholm returned Zac Gallen, any team takes that trade 10 out of 10 times. I say Mike Hazen went 2 for 2. Granted, Dansby Swanson, #1-1 draft choice plus 2 others for Shelby Miller is one of the all time worst. That’s on Dave Stewart and he was fired soon after.
As someone who goes to his former hs, this is pretty cool. Good talent and good pick for the dbacks.
Hazen has the D-backs on the rise. And remember, Hazen kept Lovullo last off-season when many expected him to let Lovullo go after a 52 win season.
Carroll is definitely a great prospect but his K rate has been a little high considering the bad quality of minors pitching. Around 23% is actually about average but many players had their k rates jump 6-7 ticks after being promoted because the stuff is so much better in the majors.
Carroll offers a lot more with good walks, decent power, great speed and defense so he should be fine even as a 0.250 hitter but i would have liked to see him to play in the minors a little longer giving him the task to lower his k rate to like 18-19% so he can be at 23-24 in the majors but he probably can manage to be a productive anyway.
But overall I like to keep players who don’t have super low k rates in the minors down a little longer so they can work on contact ability more there because it is super tough to manage that against the insane stuff of mlb pitchers. Playing in AA/AAA is like hitting against the rockies or nationals 5th starter every day.
He doesnt look like he should be able to hit 460 ft bombs. His rotational twitch must be off the charts.
The next Victor Robles
Carroll won’t hit. Average CF defense. I expect him to hit about .190 over the next two years and then be optioned down and then on the minor league contract route
Projects as a typical AAAA type. What is everybody seeing? He’s not even a good backup
They’re ranking him #3 prospect? That’s utterly ridiculous
He’ll be totally overpowered and totally overwhelmed in the major leagues
Ignore this troll. Mute
No, the ball doesn’t jump off his bat very well
Not a legitimate major league talent
There’s nothing impressive about the way the ball comes off the bat. A good AAA player, that’s it
Certainly not the #3 prospect in the league
It’s a major mistake to call him up now. He just turned 22. He’s going to get killed. This isn’t Wander Franco
He needed at least another half a season at AAA
He’ll hit .180 and be back down at AAA for a while
I knew it. Keith Law thinks he’s the #1 prospect in the game
So his absurdly high rankings on prospect lists is coming from the sabermetric geeks
They salivate over weak players like this
When do any of these guys ever work out? Never, but all the analytics geeks keep hoping
Welcome to the next Victor Robles
Jesus Christ, man. Did Corbin shoot your dog?
I think everyone is going to value the opinion of every publication that thinks he’s a Top 5 prospect (which is every single one of them) over some random bitter a**hole lol
lmao, check back with me in two years… and Im better at evaluating players than 100% of the people in the industry are
When we check back in 2 years im assuming we will still be able to find you in your mom’s basement?
@high, you have to understand people in the industry don’t know how to project anything. They analyze data and take stabs in the dark. GMs, scouts, Keith Law, Jim Callis, etc are basically just doing guesswork
I can look at less than 30 seconds of highlight video of Carroll in the minor leagues and see it’s not going to work out
On top of that, if someone has poor instincts, is weak, and is himself not much of a talent, they’ll see exceptional ability in players that are like that
Its a rare combination of talent, a winning mind, and ability for intellectual prescience that can look at a photo or two, check out 20 seconds of video and know instantly how it will work out
Ive been accurate almost 100% of the time. That isnt bragging because it isnt that hard to project anything
Camden you lost all credibility when you said that by looking at a picture you could tell Trout was a loser maybe the least intelligent thing I have ever heard. Your theory on body frame and how the players are going to perform also tells me you have are absolutely clueless when it comes to baseball. Hitting a baseball being thrown at you upwards of a 100 mph has to be one of if not the hardest thing to do in all of sports. Hand eye coordination has to be off the charts to do that otherwise guys like Franchy Cordero and Adell would be the only guys who are hall of famers. This is why your theory is ridiculous. Carroll does have a few red flags but here’s another non measurable stat for you and it’s heart. This kid has had a lot of adversity in his life and he has overcome it’s impossible to measure the determination and heart and this kid has it in spades. I think he will probably take some time to adjust but he makes hard contact uses the entire field has great sped and is going to be well above average defensively. I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is I’ll bet you his floor is closer to .250 hitter then a .190 hitter like you said you name the terms let’s get our bet on I would love to bet on this kid.
Actually most intelligent….it’s not my problem you don’t have the mind/intellect to understand what’s happening
The unknowing mob always lashes out at the people who know
You’ll see in less than two years Carroll is demoted to AAAA territory
bruin, youre another analytics/stat analyzer. In other words, another person doing guesswork, with no real ability to project anything
I can look at a few photos/videos and project any player to near 100% accuracy. I never look at stats
And youve got to understand, the mind of the scout/GM will see quality and ability in players that have no such quality or ability, if the scout/gm is himself someone with no quality or ability. Arguing, “Well the guy is a scout” is absurd. If the scout has a losing mind, is himself talentless, hes going to see value in what is not actually valuable
The industry is loaded with people who are not very talented or able
Keith Law, for example, once said Amed Rosario was a “potential MVP”
It’s obvious just from pulling up 20 seconds of video of Rosario that that is impossible to be the case
It was clear Rosario had slow bat speed and heavy, dull ball coming off the bat. On top of that, it was obvious hed never develop the plate discipline to reduce chase rate and draw walks..
Such a take that Rosario could be a future MVP comes from the mind of absolute madness
Camden I watch a lot of minor league baseball and let me tell you you can’t tell from a picture. You certainly can’t tell from picture that someone’s a loser your baseball acumen is lacking I’m willing to bet on it
What is your background,im sure it wont be true but at least tell us why you ” think” you know what you are talking about. Ever played at ANY level, coached, scouted, anything?
Camden I have to admit I haven’t seen much of Corbin Carroll but this morning I watched about an hour of highlights because maybe everyone else was wrong and you were right. After watching an hour of highlights almost everything you said about Carroll is dead wrong. I’ll tell you what I’m especially impressed with is the ease he gets to his oppo side power. This truly is a foul line to foul line hitter. He must have very strong wrists because he lets the ball get deep then can flick his wrists and hit with loft and 100 to 105 ball speed. That’s a skill very few big leaguers have. His speed on the bases is elite he will turn doubles into triples and leg out singles into doubles. I guess what I’m saying is basically Arizona has a keeper here. I will have to say Camden you did have me going that maybe you were a savant but I think you are off your meds and delusional. I just hope you take it on the chin when this guy doesn’t hit anywhere near .190 in the next two years and admit your wrong. I for one am willing to admit when I’m wrong hopefully you will to. Im guessing we will know your wrong before the end of this season.
Dbacks get better with Carroll on the roster. They are now only 2 games behind the Giants for 3rd in the tough NLW.
Dbacks are on pace for 75-80 win season. That’s a 25 win improvement over the 2021 season.
“Carroll heads to the Majors having hit .307/.425/.610 in 93 games, mostly at Double-A Amarillo and Triple-A Reno. He is one of only four Minor League full-season qualifiers with a slash line above .300/.400/.600 in all three categories, and his 1.026 OPS is sixth-best on a list of 719. He’s also contributed 24 homers and 31 stolen bases as one of eight members of the 2022 Minor League 20-20 club at the time of his callup.”
Sam Dykstra, MLB.com
I remember when Victor Robles was the #1 prospect in baseball. Just like Carroll, the day he was called up I said hed be terrible, hes a hugely overrated prospect, and basically minor league territory
Just like today, everyone was telling me theyll listen to the experts making prospect lists
Are you saying you know more than prospects experts?
Never mind, you actually did say that above. No evidence to support it, but whatever…
Camden lost all credibility when he tried to get Travis Jankowski over with the masses. That went over like a lead balloon.
Jankowski is better than Trout. He just needs the opportunity…or something.
Corbin Carroll’s debut is tonight against the Phillies. He’s playing RF and batting 8th. I’m going to the game. Carroll is the most anticipated prospect in Dback’s franchise history. Who knows? Carroll might turn out to be an All-Star and a Hall of Famer? Then I can tell my kids and Grandkids, I was there the night it all started.
Wish I could join you. Enjoy the game!
Hopefully you can get his autograph before the game.
Most anticipated is a stretch. Justin Upton was the most anticipated prospect for the Diamondbacks.Bauer was up there as well.
Well, I got one right, per Luplow.
I had the pleasure of watching Corbin at the AA level this season in Amarillo. I believe he is hands down the most complete well rounded player to come through our town since we started AA baseball in 2019. Alec Thomas and Jake McCarthy also passed through Amarillo and are excellent players. But, as I stated, Corbin is the best I have seen at this level!!
At this pace, corbin is being projected to have 324 runs scored and 324 rbi’s over 162 games
Admittedly small sample size, but the math checks out.
Everyone in this comment section should avoid interaction with Camden453. At no time does this dullard make a coherent thought. Leave him be in his own misery.