Likely no surprises here
As discussed in the call for nominations, there were a lot fewer rookies to select from this year: a mere ten in total, and at least half of those will still be eligible for the category at this point next winter. [The jury is still out on Blake Walston!] Only two players actually received serious nominations – despite the best efforts of DbacksEurope, who appears to have been attempting to obtain some sort of sponsorship from FanDuel! That left me with three at-large spots to fill, though I did give consideration to shortening the ballot.
Blaze Alexander
Rookie pickings were particularly slim on the hitting front. This was the first time since 2018 (in a full season) that no rookie reached 200 PA for Arizona. Alexander led the way at 185, and held his end up with an 86 OPS+, while starting games at second, third and short. Blaze forced his way onto the roster by hitting .400 in spring, and carried that into a torrid first month. Alexander hit .311 with a .941 OPS in April, but regression proved inevitable, despite some on social media hyping Alexander as some kind of Corbin Carroll v2.0. He was sent back to Reno at the beginning of July, getting only a cup of coffee thereafter. But Blaze will always have that blazing start to his major-league career to remember.
Slade Cecconi
Cecconi’s thirteen starts were far and away the most by an Arizona rookie this year, Yilber Diaz coming in second, all the way back on four starts. He also led the team in rookie innings: not bad, considering he was probably 8th or so on our starting pitcher depth chart. Since 2019, only two other D-backs rookies have made as many starts in a season (Ryne Nelson and Brandon Pfaadt, both last year). While Slade ended up posting the ERA of the Beast (6.66), there’s a good case he pitched considerably better, with a FIP more than a run and a half lower, at 5.02. Of the 174 pitchers in the majors with 75+ IP this season, only three had a worse gap to show for their efforts.
Adrian Del Castillo
Nominated by ketelmarte36. “The main reason I chose ADC was because his “first career home run was a walk-off winner!” -Steve Berthiaume, 2024. But, also, he hit 4 home runs and 19 RBI in 89 PA which doesn’t seem like very much but all that stuff happened in his, like, first 20 PA, and, remember his grand slam against the Marlins. Also, his first career PA was a RBI double that almost went over the wall.” ADC has already one SnakePit honor on his mantel, having won Play of the Year. He hit a grand-slam in his ninth game, giving him 14 RBI, the second-most by any player over such a span since RBI became official in 1920. He had a 146 OPS+ over 25 games: behind only Erubiel Durazo’s 153, all the way back in 2002.
Bryce Jarvis
Martinez may have the flashy triple-digits fastball, but Jarvis was almost as effective in what was, like J-Mart, his second rookie campaign. Bryce built upon a strong debut in 2023 to post an excellent 3.19 ERA across his 44 appearances this season. All told, he actually has a BETTER career ERA than Martinez (3.14 vs. 3.70), over almost exactly the same amount of major-league innings. The peripherals are undeniably not as good, with Jarvis walking almost as many (33) as he struck out (38) in 2024. But Bryce would still be younger than average in Triple-A, never mind the major-leagues, and so his best years might well be in front of him.
Justin Martínez
Nominated by BeaTenBaseball. “Justin Martinez is the obvious choice here and I nominate him. 72.2 IP is plenty of workload and he got lots of big outs for a contending team in high leverage situations. The 2.48 ERA and 1.31 WHIP are good for any pitcher, let alone a rookie.” If we had an award for most improved player, Martinez would likely be the winner. His 2023 debut showed raw stuff, but he walked more than a batter per inning, a factor in an ugly 12.60 ERA. But his K:BB ratio basically doubled this year, and his strikeout rate of 11.3 per nine IP was the highest by an Arizona rookie (min 30 IP) since Jose Valverde more than two decades ago, back in 2003. His 170 ERA+ was the best since Yoshihisa Hirano in 2018.
There’s a poll below: as ever, explain yourself in the comments. Note: I reserve the right to replace this open poll with one requiring usernames, if there are any shenanigans. I seem to recall this being a category affected by ballot-stuffing previously…