The Arizona Diamondbacks were the 2023 season's most endearing underdogs, a young team full of little-known names playing for one of the newest franchises in baseball's very long history. They fought their way into only their second ever World Series appearance by blowing favorite after favorite out of the water of the Chase Field pool. Snakes were very much alive.
Now, one of them — perhaps their most special player in a long time — is making franchise history again. Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll is the National League's Rookie of the Year, the first ever in Diamondbacks franchise history.
Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll wins NL Rookie of the Year
Carroll's win was announced tonight on MLB Network by 1996 AL Rookie of the Year Derek Jeter. With 30 first place votes, Carroll is the 14th unanimous winner of the NL award, the first since Cody Bellinger in 2017.
He was the heavy favorite for months before the end of the season, but he all but solidified his win on Sept. 20, when he hit his 25th home run and stole his 50th base to become the first rookie in MLB history to do so in a single season.
Baseball is an old, old sport, and so the records players set now tend to be terribly specific, whittled down from the history of the sport to the history of the league to the history of the franchise to the history of the franchise in the modern era, and so on. Carroll is the first rookie in the history of baseball to have a 25/50 season. This is a special achievement by an exceptional player.
He wrapped up his incredible regular season rookie campaign with a final slash line of .285/.362/.506, with 25 home runs, 54 stolen bases, 76 RBI, and a whopping 6.0 fWAR to lead the Diamondbacks by a mile. In the postseason, he batted .273/.364/.409 with two home runs, 10 RBI, and five stolen bases, creating some of the most thrilling moments in the Embrace the Chaos Diamondbacks' impossible postseason run.
Credit should go to the Diamondbacks front office for having the foresight to lock Carroll down for the next eight years two weeks ahead of the start of the 2023 season. This Rookie of the Year Award is an incredible end to a historic rookie season, but it's also only the beginning.