UTK Special 11/30/23

Rushing It, Not Rushing

Last year, we saw the ultimate effect of the anti-Super Two rules that came in with the new CBA. Call this a big win for the PA, as teams didn’t have the incentive to hold guys back as they often would. “Seasoning,” at least until the Super Two deadline was passed. We all knew it was crap, but it was smart, buying the extra year of control.

So getting guys like Gunnar Henderson, Corbin Carroll, Anthony Volpe, and Hunter Brown up early - Brown and some of the young Guardians starters were as much injury as rule - was a win for baseball. Two ROYs played more baseball in front of people. Do the D-Backs get to the playoffs if Carroll isn’t there generating value from Day One? It’s easy to argue the answer is no.

But beyond that, we started to see more ‘21 and '22 draft picks coming up. Seeing Henry Davis and Jordan Lawlar, even for cameos (and even out of position) was good. Eight guys from the ‘21 draft have already debuted, which I would guess is a lot. (Someone could have a nice SABR Analytics paper out of answering that.) There’s only one ‘22 - Zach Neto - but there’s many close. Jackson Holliday, Brooks Lee, Jace Jung, and Cooper Hjerpe could all be on rosters to start next season and perhaps those four would be the ones taking the place of Henderson/Carroll et al.