MLB Players Enjoying Career Years in 2023
Whether it's a former part-time player now thriving in an everyday role, a pitcher dominating like never before or a multiple-time All-Star making the leap into legitimate MVP consideration, a bunch of Major League Baseball players are enjoying career years in 2023.
In order to qualify as a "career year," the player previously needs to have played enough to establish some sort of career baseline. For position players, we're requiring a minimum of 700 plate appearances prior to the start of this season. And for pitchers, the minimum is either 200 innings pitched or 100 appearances.
In addition to eliminating the obvious young phenoms like Corbin Carroll, Gunnar Henderson and Bobby Witt Jr. from the conversation, that criteria also knocked out TJ Friedl, Braxton Garrett, Lars Nootbaar, Isaac Paredes, Justin Steele and Brock Stewart.
Even without having those nine players as options, we were able to find 10 other players doing their best work yet in 2023.
Players are listed in alphabetical order. Statistics current through the start of play Monday, September 18.
Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves
1 of 10
2023 Stats: .337/.418/.586, 37 HR, 98 RBI, 66 SB, 7.6 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2019): .280/.365/.518, 41 HR, 101 RBI, 37 SB, 5.1 bWAR
Presumed AL MVP Shohei Ohtani and likely AL Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole have more or less matched their previous career-best seasons, while NL Cy Young favorite Blake Snell hasn't been nearly as dominant as he was while winning a Cy Young in 2018. So you won't find any of them on this list.
But NL MVP favorite Ronald Acuña Jr. has been on quite the personal rampage.
Acuña was certainly good prior to 2023, and was well on his way to winning MVP midway through 2021 before tearing his ACL.
He had never previously led the majors in any major category, though, and is currently No. 1 in runs, hits, on-base percentage, total bases and stolen bases. (As well as times caught stealing.)
Perhaps even more impressive than his historic HR/SB campaign is the combination of his improved strikeout rate and batting average.
Acuña entered 2023 as a career .277 hitter in five seasons, striking out in 25.3 percent of his plate appearances. This year, his whiff rate has been slashed all the way down to 11.4 percent, resulting in substantially more balls in play and a much better batting average for it.
He's already the only player to put up 30 home runs and steal 60 bases in the same season. We'll see if he can get to 40 and 70 by the time all is said and done.
Zach Eflin, Tampa Bay Rays
2 of 10
2023 Stats: 15-8, 167.2 IP, 3.44 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 3.07 FIP, 9.2 K/9, 3.5 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2021): 4-7, 105.2 IP, 4.17 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 3.68 FIP, 8.4 K/9, 2.0 bWAR
There are quite a few Tampa Bay Rays who have broken out in a big way in 2023.
Position players Josh Lowe, Isaac Paredes, Luke Raley and Jose Siri didn't have enough prior plate appearances to qualify for this list, but they've all been drastically better than they had been in lesser roles in recent seasons. Relievers Shawn Armstrong and Colin Poche have also been way more valuable than usual. And Yandy Díaz was an All-Star for the first time in his eight-year career, hitting for both average and power better than ever before.
Zach Eflin takes the cake, though, blossoming into a borderline ace in Tampa Bay after seven years as a No. 3/4 starter in Philadelphia.
The biggest change for Eflin has been the effectiveness of his breaking balls.
He's relying on his curveball much more than in years past, and he has implemented that new-fangled sweeper taking MLB by storm this season. Between those two pitches, opponents have gone 33-for-194 (.170) with 78 strikeouts.
In turn, that has made his four-seamer much more valuable. Eflin primarily throws a sinker or cutter when it's time for a fastball, but on the 5.5 percent of the time that he pulls out the four-seamer, that 93 MPH pitch up in the zone is so lethal when juxtaposed with those 79 MPH breaking balls at the knees. Of the 41 ABs that have ended on a four-seamer, 22 have been strikeouts and only five have been hits.
Eflin has given the Rays 17 quality starts, logging 52.2 more innings than the next-closest pitcher on the staff. He's also leading all qualified pitchers with a WHIP of 1.01.
Brandon Marsh, Philadelphia Phillies
3 of 10
2023 Stats: .285/.374/.457, 10 HR, 54 RBI, 9 SB, 3.1 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2022): .245/.295/.384, 11 HR, 52 RBI, 10 SB, 1.6 bWAR
With 721 plate appearances prior to this season, Brandon Marsh met our minimum criteria for position players by a margin of roughly five games played.
But, hey, that's enough to qualify, and this has easily been his most impressive season in the big leagues.
As a rookie in 2021, Marsh had a mediocre .673 OPS. Last year, he was much better after getting traded from the Angels to the Phillies, but his overall mark for the year (.679) was almost exactly the same.
This year, however, he was incredible out of the gate, posting a 1.212 OPS through his first 21 games, batting .364 with four home runs.
That was not sustainable for an entire season, of course, but he still has a solid season-long OPS of .831, thanks in large part to a 10-game hitting streak in August during which he hit .467.
Aside from Bryce Harper at .875, Marsh is leading the Phillies in OPS (among players with at least 100 plate appearances).
What's most impressive about that is with just 10 home runs, Marsh doesn't hit for a ton of power. However, he has made up for it with 23 doubles and a team-high six triples.
And while his defensive metrics in center haven't been anything special, Marsh should get some sort of medal for the amount of ground he has to cover when he's out there with Kyle Schwarber in left, Nick Castellanos in right or both.
.png?w=256)
Chris Martin, Boston Red Sox
4 of 10
2023 Stats: 4-1, 49.1 IP, 1 save, 23 holds, 1.09 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 8.0 K/9, 2.49 FIP, 3.1 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2019): 1-3, 55.2 IP, 4 saves, 18 holds, 3.40 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 10.5 K/9, 3.25 FIP, 1.7 bWAR
You don't see many relievers with a six-pitch arsenal, but Boston's 37-year-old Chris Martin has been using his deep bag of tricks masterfully to keep opposing hitters off-balance all season long.
By no small margin, his filthiest pitch has been the splitter. In the 31 at-bats that have ended on that pitch, opponents are 3-for-31 with three singles and 18 strikeouts.
But more impressive than any particular pitch is how darn unhittable Martin has been with runners in scoring position.
In those 53 plate appearances this season, opponents have triple-slashed .130/.226/.152, squandering golden opportunities time and again with Martin on the mound.
Oftentimes, those runners aren't even his own doing, either. He has inherited 15 baserunners this season, keeping all but one of them from scoring.
That has been Martin's biggest change from years past: stranding runners and limiting the snowball innings. He has allowed multiple runs in an outing just once all season, with that two-run blip coming back on June 6.
Since then, he has allowed one total run in 31.2 innings of work.
Chas McCormick, Houston Astros
5 of 10
2023 Stats: .284/.363/.504, 20 HR, 64 RBI, 18 SB, 3.6 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2021): .257/.319/.447, 14 HR, 50 RBI, 4 SB, 2.3 bWAR
Like Brandon Marsh, Chas McCormick didn't make the cut by much, entering this season with 727 career plate appearances.
Interestingly, though, he has gotten a similar amount of playing time in each of his three MLB seasons, appearing in 108 games in 2021, 119 last year and 104 thus far in 2023.
Yet, across the board, this has been by far his most productive season.
It didn't start out that way, though.
Because of a back injury, McCormick appeared in just 22 of Houston's first 51 games, batting .211 with a .663 OPS. Had Michael Brantley been healthy at that point in time
But in 82 games played since then, he has triple-slashed .303/.380/.540 with 18 home runs and 14 stolen bases.
That's in essentially half of a season, so double those numbers and you're talking about a .300 hitter with 36 home runs and 28 stolen bases.
Ronald Acuña Jr. and potentially Julio Rodríguez will reach all three of those marks this year, but over the past two decades, the only .300 hitters with at least 36 home runs and 28 stolen bases were Matt Kemp in 2011 (.324, 39 HR, 40 SB), Ryan Braun in 2012 (.319, 41 HR, 30 SB) and Christian Yelich in 2019 (.329, 44 HR, 30 SB)—all of whom coincidentally were first runner-up in the NL MVP vote that season.
Not too shabby for a guy who opened the season sharing the centerfield job with Jake Meyers.
Matt Olson, Atlanta Braves
6 of 10
2023 Stats: .278/.385/.612, 52 HR, 129 RBI, 6.6 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2021): .271/.371/.540, 39 HR, 111 RBI, 5.8 bWAR
Of the bunch, Matt Olson is having the least blatant career year, as he was pretty darn good while finishing eighth in the AL MVP vote just two years ago. Olson also had a remarkable rookie campaign in 2017, mashing 24 home runs in just 216 trips to the plate.
But this year, he has run away with the MLB lead in both home runs and RBI and would be a top candidate for NL MVP if he weren't playing alongside an even better one.
Through mid-June, it didn't seem like a career year for Olson. He was on pace for 43 home runs and 107 RBI, but he was also striking out a ton and only batting .228. He didn't exactly stand out from the likes of Pete Alonso, Max Muncy and Kyle Schwarber at that point in time.
In 81 games played dating back to June 15, though, Olson is batting .321 and slugging .721 with 34 home runs and 84 RBI. He has slashed his whiff rate from 30 percent down to 18 percent.
After hitting his 43rd home run of the season on August 13, he went ice cold for three weeks, batting .206 with no home runs in 18 games. But over the course of his next 10 games, this streaky slugger hit .514 with eight home runs, surging into a commanding lead in that department.
The dream of a 60-HR campaign is probably dead, but take it to the bank that this two-time Gold Glove recipient is headed for the first Silver Slugger trophy of his career.
Luis Robert Jr., Chicago White Sox
7 of 10
2023 Stats: .262/.314/.531, 35 HR, 75 RBI, 17 SB, 4.7 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2021): .338/.378/.567, 13 HR, 43 RBI, 6 SB, 3.6 bWAR
With Luis Robert Jr., it's not a career year because he is playing his best baseball.
It's a career year because he is playing his healthiest baseball.
For the 68 games he was able to log in 2021, he was sensational. He came nowhere close to making enough plate appearances to qualify for league titles, but if he had, he would've led the majors in batting average and would've ranked sixth in OPS+, trailing only Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Juan Soto and Bryce Harper.
Robert was also moderately effective while playing in 98 games last year.
But he has absolutely decimated his previous career highs in the counting stats by appearing in 139 games and counting.
Robert is one of just four players this season with at least 35 home runs and 10 stolen bases. The others are Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Ronald Acuña Jr.
Not a bad trio to be in a four-man club with, right?
In addition to that power and speed, Robert has had a solid glove this season. He won a Gold Glove in center as a rookie in 2020, and he might be getting another trophy for his mantle in a couple of months.
It does bear mentioning that Robert's bWAR has dropped in recent weeks. He hasn't had a home run, a stolen base or a multi-hit game yet in September, and prior to getting the day off Sunday, he had gone 0-for-16 with 10 strikeouts over his previous four games.
Even with a slump that has brought his OPS down from .886 to .845, though, it has still clearly been a career year for Robert.
It's a shame the ChiSox completely wasted it.
Tanner Scott, Miami Marlins
8 of 10
2023 Stats: 8-4, 71.2 IP, 9 saves, 24 holds, 2.13 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 11.8 K/9, 2.17 FIP, 3.4 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2020): 0-0, 20.2 IP, 1 save, 5 holds, 1.31 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 10.0 K/9, 3.48 FIP, 1.3 bWAR
For the bulk of his first six seasons in the majors, Tanner Scott was a replacement-level reliever. Take out the strong run he had in the abridged 2020 campaign and his bWAR from 2017-22 goes: -0.1, -0.1, 0.0, -0.1, 0.0, as he posted both an ERA north of 4.30 and a WHIP north of 1.55 in each of those years.
Then, out of absolutely nowhere, he blossomed into one of the most valuable relievers in all of baseball.
The southpaw only throws two pitches, giving opponents a steady diet of four-seamers and sliders. The velocity on both pitches hasn't much changed throughout his career, but he is getting considerably more horizontal break on his slider than ever before, making it more unhittable than usual.
The biggest change in Scott's game, though?
First-pitch strikes.
Per FanGraphs, his previous career best in this department was 56.7 percent in 2018, often working from behind while walking 14.2 percent of batters faced over the previous six seasons. But this year, he's at 69.1 percent first-pitch strikes, walking just 8.5 percent of batters faced.
And when you can consistently get ahead 0-1 without serving up meatballs—which Scott has done, allowing just two home runs in his 71.2 innings pitched—things are usually going to work out in your favor.
Corey Seager, Texas Rangers
9 of 10
2023 Stats: .337/.399/.651, 31 HR, 92 RBI, 41 2B, 6.7 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2016): .308/.365/.512, 26 HR, 72 RBI, 40 2B, 5.2 bWAR
Between missing 31 games early in the season with a hamstring injury and another nine games at the end of July with a thumb injury, it wasn't until about two weeks ago that Corey Seager finally registered enough plate appearances to qualify for a batting title.
And assuming he gets to the qualifying standard of 502 plate appearances (currently at 481), he's probably going to win the first batting title of his career, currently 18 points ahead of his closest competition—Tampa Bay's Yandy Díaz at .319.
Seager is also leading the American League in doubles—pretty absurd, considering he has missed 43 games—and entered Sunday leading the majors in slugging percentage, narrowly edging out Shohei Ohtani (.654) in that department.
It's equally absurd that he has set a new career-high in RBI and has been worth 1.5 bWAR more than his previous best season, despite playing in just 106 games compared to 157 games played in 2016 when he won NL Rookie of the Year and finished third in the NL MVP vote.
But that pretty well sums up how sensational Seager has been when healthy thus far in 2023.
He has had 16 three-hit games, as well as 16 games with multiple extra-base hits. Likely MVPs Ohtani and Ronald Acuña Jr. have each had just 12 games with multiple extra-base hits.
Oh by the way, Seager is also having arguably his best defensive season with a .982 fielding percentage. He probably won't win a Gold Glove, but he reasonably could be one of the three finalists for what would be just the second time in his career (2017).
Lane Thomas, Washington Nationals
10 of 10
2023 Stats: .272/.319/.471, 25 HR, 79 RBI, 18 SB, 3.2 bWAR
Previous Career Year (2022): .241/.301/.404, 17 HR, 52 RBI, 8 SB, 1.6 bWAR
Got to love when a young player gets traded, finally gets regular playing time and then has back-to-back breakout seasons.
We saw it with Nathaniel Lowe, who went from two years as a part-time player in Tampa Bay to the everyday first baseman in Texas, blossoming into a valuable asset in 2021 before further exploding into a Silver Slugger in 2022.
Now we're seeing it from Lane Thomas, who barely saw the field in 2.5 seasons in St. Louis before the Nationals traded Jon Lester for him in 2021. He quickly became an everyday fixture in the lineup and was one of the most valuable players that the Nats didn't trade away in 2022.
But he has further stepped up his game this season, emerging as their primary slugger with a total of 61 extra-base hits.
One major difference is that Thomas has been drastically better at Nationals Park this season.
Last year, he was a road warrior, posting an .825 OPS on the road compared to just .567 at home. This year, that home OPS has skyrocketed to .897.
He has also annihilated lefties in 2023 to the tune of a .331/.377/.576 triple slash.
There was speculation around the trade deadline that he could be on the move with 2.5 years remaining before reaching free agency, but Washington opted to hang onto the then-27-year-old outfielder.
Maybe he'll reward them with another breakout campaign in 2024.
.png?w=480)
