(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
The Arizona Diamondbacks are 4-0 in the 2023 postseason.
It’s kind of shocking, considering they were one of the last teams to punch their ticket to the playoffs and barely finished above .500, at 84-78.
But postseason baseball is a different animal: it’s a world in which small sample size meets power, pitching, and athleticism to give teams that have those attributes the best chance at succeeding.
He can’t pitch, but do you know who has all those traits and more?
Corbin Carroll.
The favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year, Carroll has been carrying the D-Backs offense in October.
“Corbin Carroll in 4 postseason games for the @Dbacks: 7 hits, 6 runs, 5 walks, 4 RBI, 4 team wins, 3 XBH, 2 HR. Only one other player in MLB history has reached all of those numbers over any 4-game span in the postseason: Lou Gehrig (1928-32),” OptaSTATS tweeted.
Corbin Carroll in 4 postseason games for the @Dbacks:
7 hits, 6 runs, 5 walks, 4 RBI, 4 team wins, 3 XBH, 2 HR
Only one other player in MLB history has reached all of those numbers over any 4-game span in the postseason: Lou Gehrig (1928-32). pic.twitter.com/oTwcP0Vxjm
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) October 10, 2023
Those are unbelievable numbers.
No wonder Arizona has been so good this postseason!
Besides all those things, Carroll adds an element in which Gehrig didn’t have too much impact nearly a century ago: speed.
He stole 54 bases in the regular season and logged his first one of the playoffs on Monday against the Dodgers.
In 14 postseason at-bats, the dynamic outfielder is hitting .500/.632/1.000 with a 1.632 OPS.
It has to be extremely encouraging for the Diamondbacks to have Carroll perform so well already: he is just 23 and is under cheap team control for many more years.
He will be leading that D-Backs lineup for the long haul, and that makes them extremely dangerous.
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