As if this MLB season hasn’t had enough intrigue with the record-setting Rays and the new rule changes, we’ve seen a wave of highly ranked prospects make their big-league debuts over the last few weeks — some with more success than others.
While the infusion of young talent has helped offset the rash of early injuries across baseball, it’s also added an interesting wrinkle to the Rookie of the Year race in each league, which was already hard to predict before the myriad promotions in late April and early May.
So, with some young stars already up and others on their way, here are a few late call-ups worth betting to win Rookie of the Year, with their odds courtesy of BetMGM:
Of all of the recent call-ups that we’ve seen to this point, Bradley has been arguably the most impressive: entering this week, he ranked fourth among rookie pitchers in fWAR (0.6) despite tossing just 15 ¹/₃ innings — less than half of fWAR leader Hunter Brown (1.1) — and his xERA (2.29) ranked second behind only Tanner Bibee (2.03).
Most impressively, he’s struck out 38.3 percent of the batters he’s faced, which ranks fifth among all MLB starters with at least 10 innings pitched — behind only Jeffrey Springs, Spencer Strider, Jacob deGrom and Shohei Ohtani. How’s that for elite company?
The Rays sent Bradley back to Triple-A to work him into a five-day rotation, but he should return to the bigs soon, and the injuries across Tampa Bay’s staff should mean a lengthy stay when he does. That spells some compelling value in this market as a relative long shot.
The aptly nicknamed “Mash” Mervis made his presence felt right away after last week’s call-up, recording two RBIs in his first two games while scorching one of the hardest-hit balls (111.2 mph) of any Cubs batter this season.
The strikeouts are an issue early on — he struck out in five of his first eight at-bats — but he showed tremendous plate discipline in Triple-A before getting called up, and he profiles as one of the best power bats in this potential rookie class.
With fellow first baseman Eric Hosmer struggling in Chicago, Mervis has a path to playing time and some eye-popping numbers, too.
While Miller showed impressive swing-and-miss potential in the minors, nobody expected what he did in his first taste of MLB action last week: 10 strikeouts across nearly six perfect innings before two timely hits in the sixth plated a lone run and ended his sterling debut.
Yes, he did so against the lowly Athletics lineup, but the underlying metrics support a strong season ahead for the Mariners’ fast-rising prospect. Eight of those 10 punchouts came via his blistering four-seamer, which had a 37.9 percent whiff rate and had 4.8 inches of rise compared to the average fastball — the most extreme vertical movement of any pitch in MLB.
With Robbie Ray (elbow) out for the year and Chris Flexen struggling to hold down a starter’s role for Seattle, Miller should have plenty of run in the rotation in a pitcher-friendly park. And if his first start is any indication, he could be the standout rookie that nobody saw coming.