Verducci: D-backs rookie Corbin Carroll is Steve Finley, Mike Trout?

Rookie sensation Corbin Carroll is starting to draw comparisons from national media as a top player on the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks.

MLB Network’s Tom Verducci crunched the numbers and analyzed the swing Carroll has used to accumulate an OPS hovering near .950, 13 home runs and 18 steals.

.@corbin_carroll is having a remarkable rookie season for the @Dbacks 🐍

Tom Verducci takes a look at how the outfielder's elite speed and sneaky pop has powered Arizona to the second-best record in the NL.#MLBTonight | #ArizonaBorn pic.twitter.com/KWBEz8iRnY

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) June 9, 2023

Those numbers put him on pace to finish near the top of the charts for any rookie ever in the history of the MLB.

Mike Trout’s rookie stat line that included a .963 OPS and 49 steals is dangerously in reach for Carroll one-third of the way through the season. It’s hard to imagine matching Trout and not winning the NL Rookie of the Year award.

Carroll came into the season as the favorite to win the award and could lead the field wire-to-wire if his production levels hold.

His biggest competition could be 6-foot-5 shortstop Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds. Carroll, however, has a 56-game head start on his tall rival who was just called up to the big leagues earlier this week.

More important, perhaps, than his individual success are the memories he is rekindling of winning D-backs teams of the past and former player, Steve Finley.

Verducci said Carroll’s swing finishes flat, level and compact, similar to Finley who was an important component of the 2001 D-backs team that won the World Series.

Behind Carroll – who isn’t going anywhere soon after signing an eight-year, $111 million contract this offseason – the D-backs have their sights set on not only making the playoffs again but possibly winning a playoff series for just the third time since that 2001 World Series Championship.

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