Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen, OF Corbin Carroll make All-MLB 1st Team

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zac Gallen and outfielder Corbin Carroll made the 2023 All-MLB First Team, as announced Saturday evening at an awards ceremony in Las Vegas.

Gallen, Gerrit Cole, Blake Snell, Spencer Strider and Shohei Ohtani made the First Team for starting pitchers, while Carroll joined Mookie Betts and Ronald Acuña Jr. in the outfield.

All-MLB teams started in 2019, and the only Diamondbacks player to make the cut before Saturday was pitcher Zack Greinke in 2019, although he was traded to the Houston Astros at the deadline.

Aces are wild in Vegas! ♠️

Congratulations to this year’s All-MLB First-Team starting pitchers!@MGMRewards | #AllMLB pic.twitter.com/4OvGVI7ylu

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) December 17, 2023

Gallen finished third in the National League Cy Young race behind Snell and Logan Webb of the Giants after making his first career All-Star Game. He set a career high with 210 innings during the regular season — second to Webb — in which he worked a 3.47 ERA with 220 strikeouts. His fastball had the third highest run value among pitches in MLB at 27, per Statcast.

He threw his first complete-game shutout in a critical September matchup against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, and despite some ups and downs in the postseason, he flirted with a no-hitter in a do-or-die Game 5 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers. He threw 6.1 innings with one earned run in what was the final game of the Fall Classic.

Gallen went on stage in Vegas to accept the hardware and said, “It was a lot of fun for us to make some noise in the playoffs and do something that was kind of unexpected.”

Carroll unanimously won the NL Rookie of the Year and finished fifth in the NL MVP race. The 23-year-old signed an eight-year contract in spring training after his cup of coffee in the big leagues in 2022, and he rewarded the organization with the first 25-homer, 50-stolen base campaign by a rookie in MLB history. Carroll made the All-Star Game and started along with Gallen.

He slashed .285/.362/.506 with a league-leading 10 triples, 76 RBIs and a 134 OPS+.

Carroll also finished third in MLB with 54 steals, seventh in runs (116) and 10th in runs created (114).

He dominated the first two rounds of the postseason and produced a three-hit Game 7 of the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies to help Arizona claim its second pennant.

When asked by MLB Network’s Mark DeRosa how would he can top his historic rookie year, Carroll said, “It’s gonna be tough to do, but just got to take a day at a time and keep working. That’s all I can do, all I can control. That’s what I love, I love the process. The results will come — not always gonna be there, but all I can do is control myself and my process and that’s all I try to do.”

Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker, second baseman Ketel Marte, starting pitcher Merrill Kelly and closer Paul Sewald were also finalists for the All-MLB teams.

All-MLB teams

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