Shohei Ohtani and the 10 Players Defining MLB's 2023 Season So Far
With the midway point of the MLB season past us, we have a large enough sample size to determine who have been the defining players of 2023 so far.
Most of the names should not surprise you, as they tend to be perennial All-Stars who help thrust their respective teams into contention.
We start with the game's biggest star, Angels ace pitcher and top slugger Shohei Ohtani. Not enough can be said about him, so allow us to say even more here.
But we also take a look at a couple of rookies, and some emerging stars with new roles and clean bills of health.
Feel free to compare lists.
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels
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Ohtani simply has no contemporaries. There are no parallels and there is no context.
It is now the third consecutive season of the full Shohei Ohtani experience, where he hits better than most of the batters he faces and pitches better than most of the hurlers he sees from the batter's box.
The 29-year-old was the AL MVP in 2021, and it took Aaron Judge breaking a 60-year-old AL home run record to keep him from winning it again last season.
Through 330 at-bats, Ohtani leads MLB in OPS, slugging, home runs and tied for the lead in triples. He's also tied for the second most RBI.
On the pitching side, he has the second-lowest batting average against and ranks third in strikeouts per nine innings.
Ohtani is the best player in baseball for a third consecutive season, could make the postseason for the first time in his career and is expected to shatter contract records in free agency this offseason.
The game may be bigger than one person, but this is the guy.
RHP Zac Gallen, Arizona Diamondbacks
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The Diamondbacks' turnaround over these past two seasons is a true testament to young player development.
A great example of that is their 27-year-old ace Zac Gallen, who was recently named a first-time All-Star. Gallen (10-3, 3.15 ERA) is a key reason Arizona is the surprise leader of the AL West.
Sure, the San Diego Padres spent a lot of money on a star-studded roster, and the Los Angeles Dodgers have been the class of the division for years. Even the San Francisco Giants, who had a letdown of an offseason, are in the wild-card hunt.
However, none of them have a pitcher as good as Gallen right now, who is second in fWAR and fourth in FIP among major league pitchers.
Arizona traded Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the Miami Marlins for Gallen in 2019. Both have since become All-Stars, but Gallen is the perennial Cy Young candidate leading the Diamondbacks from rebuilding to contending.
SS Corey Seager, Texas Rangers
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For all of the focus on how the New York Mets and San Diego Padres have failed to live up to expectations after spending big, the Texas Rangers are the counterexample.
They signed Corey Seager to a 10-year, $325 million deal ahead of the 2022 season, winning the free-agent shortstop sweepstakes from that class.
It took a year, but the Rangers are now leading the AL West and in prime position to make the postseason for the first time since 2016.
They have four position players representing them in the All-Star game this year. Seager is the best among them despite missing about a month of action from April to May with a left hamstring strain.
The 29-year-old has been elite in 216 at-bats, hitting .347 with a 1.010 OPS, 10 home runs and 50 RBI. Of MLB players with at-least 200 plate appearances, only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani create more runs.
The Rangers are able to survive without Jacob deGrom, their marquee signing from the most recent free-agency period, because the other starters have been consistent and they have one of the best hitters in the game anchoring their lineup in Seager.
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SS Wander Franco, Tampa Bay Rays
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The best defensive shortstop in the game deserves a spot on this list. Unlike the All-Star balloting, no need to wait for a replacement to get Wander Franco in here.
The 22-year-old is leading MLB with 12 outs above average and nine runs prevented, according to Baseball Savant. His team has the best record in the AL, in the best division in baseball.
Franco is also getting it done at the plate. Through 324 at-bats, he is slashing .284/.343/.466 for an .809 OPS, 10 home runs and 43 RBI.
He leads all shortstops in fWAR and is fifth in wRC+. He, along with Randy Arozarena, are the clear leaders of the squad with the best record against teams above .500.
Even as the Rays regress to the mean from their unbelievable start, Franco has shown his value when healthy. Injuries limited him to just 83 games last season, a year after he broke Mickey Mantle's on-base streak for a player 20 years old or younger.
Franco is the future.
LF Corbin Carroll, Arizona Diamondbacks
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Gallen is the Diamondbacks' ace, but Corbin Carroll is the breakout star for the NL West leaders. He was recently named NL Rookie of the Month after hitting .291 with eight home runs, 22 RBI, seven doubles and eight stolen bases in June.
The 22-year-old leads all MLB rookies in fWAR and tied with Tampa Bay's Luke Raley for the highest OPS among rookies as of Wednesday. He is second behind Raley in wRC+ among rookies. But unlike Raley, Carroll isn't playing with All-Stars the caliber of Wander Franco, Randy Arozarena and Yandy Diaz.
Carroll's only other All-Star teammates are Zac Gallen and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
At this rate, he should run away with the NL Rookie of the Year, and he's in the second-tier NL MVP conversation behind Ronald Acuna Jr., Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Arizona's 2019 first-round pick is living up to the hype in his first full season in the big leagues.
RF Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers
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Never mind that the Dodgers did not have the most impressive offseason. Their improvement happened internally, with Mookie Betts returning to the MVP-caliber player he was when they traded for him in 2020.
That is not to say the 30-year-old has been bad at any point. But this is more in line with the 2018 AL MVP who helped lead the Boston Red Sox to a World Series, and the player who helped the Dodgers capture a World Series title in the shortened 2020 season.
Betts is third among qualified players in OPS, behind only Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna Jr. He is fifth among qualified players in fWAR.
FanGraphs' Jay Jaffe wrote recently on Betts' leadoff homer binge. He has nine of them just past the halfway mark of the season, including five in June and three over an eight-day span.
This Dodgers team may not be as talented as in previous years, but it still has one of the game's defining players at the top of the order.
RHP Nathan Eovaldi, Texas Rangers
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With Jacob deGrom making only six starts before a second Tommy John surgery cut his season short, it's been Nathan Eovaldi as the Rangers' best pitcher this season.
The Red Sox' botched negotiations with Eovaldi probably got more fanfare than his actual two-year, $34 million deal with Texas.
There is no question both the 33-year-old and the Rangers are on the better side of it all.
The Rangers are in prime position to make their first postseason appearance since 2016, led by Eovaldi as their ace. And the Red Sox are at the bottom of the AL East, despite a positive run differential and impressive record against teams above .500.
Eovaldi is 10-3 with a 2.64 ERA, making him among the AL leaders in both wins and ERA. His 112.1 innings are also the most of any AL pitcher as of Wednesday.
It helps the Rangers tremendously to have their top players like Eovaldi and Seager offer experience in meaningful games, as former World Series champions and All-Stars at previous stops where there was pressure to perform.
Now, they are bringing a winning culture to Texas.
SS Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds
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Look no further than the rookie Elly De La Cruz sending this pitch 455 feet to the upper deck in right center field at Nationals Park on Wednesday.
It was described in the broadcast as "a missile" with the 21-year-old hitting it 111.6 mph off the bat. He is a special young player, one who should have baseball fans on the edge of their seats for a long time.
At 6'5'', De La Cruz is physically imposing as a shortstop and a world-class athlete who turns routine ground balls into adventures.
He trails just Carroll in the NL Rookie of the Year race, but that's because he's played only a fraction of the games. Carroll has played in 81 games with 291 at-bats, compared to De La Cruz's 26 games and 109 at-bats.
The Reds rookie is slashing .308/.348/.490 with 10 stolen bases in that span.
Expect for him to be a threat from the plate and on the basepaths for the foreseeable future. He is also part of the reason Cincinnati is leading the NL Central and could win its first division title since 2012.
LHP Framber Valdez, Houston Astros
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Framber Valdez was recently named to his second straight All-Star selection. The difference between this year and 2022 is that now he is the Astros' undisputed ace.
They leaned on Justin Verlander's AL Cy Young performance last season at the top of the rotation, while Valdez pitched adeptly in his shadow.
With Verlander gone to the New York Mets, the spotlight is shining on Valdez as the ace of a team trying to become the first to repeat as World Series champions since the 2000 New York Yankees.
Perhaps making Valdez even more important is the Astros losing three members of their starting rotation early in the season. They have been without Lance McCullers Jr., Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy for the bulk of the season, instead relying on Valdez, Cristian Javier and a cast of rookies to get the job done.
With all of that, the Astros are just two games behind the Texas Rangers in the AL West and look like one of the more dangerous wild-card teams you will find.
2B Luis Arráez, Miami Marlins
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Even during an era in which batting average is minimized for more comprehensive stats like OPS and wRC+, flirting with .400 will always be worthy of attention.
The Marlins are likely only competing for a wild-card spot, since Atlanta seems to be not only the class of its division but perhaps all of baseball.
Miami's team is still scrappy, led by last year's AL batting champion Arráez, who has a chance to win the NL batting title this year and become the first to hit .400 or better since Ted Williams in 1941.
It doesn't matter how meaningful stats change over time. If it takes 82 years to repeat it, and the last to do it is someone like Ted Williams, then it's an incredible feat.
Arráez has a .384 batting average after Wednesday's 10-9 win against the St. Louis Cardinals, in which he recorded another hit.
Whether through MLB streaming or box-score watching, his at-bats have become appointment viewing.
RF Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta
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Ronald Acuña Jr. has the lowest odds to win the NL MVP, and it's not particularly close. The Atlanta superstar is hitting .337 with a 1.008 OPS this season.
The 25-year-old leads all of baseball in fWAR and is second behind only Shohei Ohtani in wRC+. He's been particularly sensational the past seven games, slashing .458/.567/1.000 with four home runs. His slash line over the past 30 games is .363/.433/.677 with 10 homers.
Acuña's 41 stolen bases are second in MLB, as is his slugging percentage. Only Luis Arráez and Juan Soto have a higher on-base percentage, but neither is slugging near the level of Acuña.
This is his first normal, fully healthy season since 2019, and it's showing in his performances.
While much of the NL East offseason conversation centered around the Mets signing Justin Verlander and the Philadelphia Phillies signing Trea Turner, it's been Atlanta getting Acuña back to full strength that's been the most impactful development in the division.
Atlanta won the World Series two years ago without him, but he will be the reason for however far it goes in 2023.
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