10 MLB Players You Didn't Know Were Having Great 2024 Seasons
By this point in the 2024 Major League Baseball season, you're probably well aware that the likes of Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr., Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal have been performing admirably for months.
There are quite a few other players thriving in more of an under-the-radar fashion, though.
To qualify for this list of underappreciated stars, a player must meet two criteria:
- Was not named an All-Star this season
- Has logged at least 40 IP or 200 PA this season*
It's not exactly exclusive criteria, leaving close to 600 players as candidates. But the first eliminates players who are known to be having great seasons, while the second eliminates those who haven't played quite enough that they need to be household names.
From that list of candidates, we've selected five hitters and five pitchers, presented in alphabetical order by last name.
*Players who have been awesome in a smaller sample size include Minnesota's Royce Lewis, San Francisco's Tyler Fitzgerald, Miami's Xavier Edwards, Seattle's Collin Snider and Tampa Bay's Edwin Uceta.
Michael Busch, 1B, Chicago Cubs
1 of 10
2024 Stats: .258/.344/.453, 15 HR, 44 RBI, 3.0 bWAR
Michael Busch had been a highly touted prospect for a while. From 2021-23, he hit 79 home runs with a .926 OPS between double-A and triple-A in the Dodgers farm system.
With nowhere to put him on a regular basis, though, they shipped him to the Cubs this past January for a couple of teenage prospects.
In his first season in the Windy City, Busch has kind of quietly become Chicago's most valuable player—and at a position that had been a major struggle since trading away Anthony Rizzo three years ago.
Busch does strike out a ton. He's one of five qualified hitters with a whiff rate north of 31 percent, but he also walks in better than 11 percent of his plate appearances. And his launch angle sweet spot percentage ranks among the best in the majors, which means he's usually hitting it quite well when he does put the ball in play.
For most of the first half of the season, the 26-year-old was in the bottom half of Chicago's lineup. Since late-June, though, he has pretty consistently batted in the 2-hole.
Busch has also been one of the most valuable first basemen on defense this season. He can't quite hold a candle to two-time reigning Gold Glove winner Christian Walker, but he is fifth among first basemen in outs above average and hasn't committed a single error in more than 400 hundred chances over the past three months.
Dylan Cease, RHP, San Diego Padres
2 of 10
2024 Stats: 137.2 IP, 11-8, 3.40 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 11.5 K/9, 3.2 bWAR
Four days prior to the All-Star Game, leaving Dylan Cease off the National League roster was at least justifiable.
Through the end of play on July 12, he was second in the NL and fifth in the majors in total strikeouts with 138, albeit with a 4.21 ERA. Milwaukee's Freddy Peralta (130 K, 4.11 ERA) was in a near-identical spot, and no one was up in arms about him being left at home.
On the next-to-last day before the All-Star break, though, Cease tossed six shutout innings against the Atlanta Braves, allowing just one single on a swinging bunt by Marcell Ozuna.
In San Diego's second game after the break, Cease went seven shutout innings, again allowing just one hit. (Though, that one hit was a howitzer of a triple off the bat of Tyler Freeman.) And in his next turn through the rotation, he no-hit the Washington Nationals.
All told, it was a stretch of 22 scoreless innings with 30 strikeouts and just two hits allowed.
It came too late to result in what would have been the first All-Star Game selection of his career, but not too late to potentially sneak into the NL Cy Young conversation with a sub-1.00 WHIP and what is now the MLB lead in strikeouts.
For what it's worth, Cease should have been on your radar already. He almost won the AL Cy Young two years ago. His trade from the White Sox to the Padres in mid-March was a blockbuster type of deal—certainly bigger than anything that happened at this year's trade deadline. And he had three starts in the first half of this season in which he went seven innings and allowed one hit.
All-Star or not, he's a certified ace.
Matt Chapman, 3B, San Francisco Giants
3 of 10
2024 Stats: .246/.334/.444, 18 HR, 54 RBI, 12 SB, 5.3 bWAR
Matt Chapman's value added on defense is second to none. Even with an unusually high 13 errors committed, the two-time Platinum Glove recipient has been worth 10 defensive runs saved this season, good for top 10 in the majors and No. 1 among third basemen.
He still mashes at the plate from time to time, too. He's not going to come anywhere close to his career high of 36 home runs from five years ago, but he does already have more dingers than he did in 140 games played in 2023 (17) and is likely headed for at least 60 total extra-base hits.
And who knew he could run? He had a combined total of 11 stolen bases in his first seven seasons in the big leagues, but the 31-year-old has suddenly become fleet of foot with a dozen swipes in 13 attempts.
Add it all up and Chapman entered play on Wednesday with the eighth-highest 2024 bWAR, trailing only Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Juan Soto, Gunnar Henderson, Jarren Duran, Shohei Ohtani and Ketel Marte.
But, sure, he's not an All-Star (and hasn't been an All-Star in half a decade) because he's a career .240 hitter. Ridiculous.
Chapman should have gotten paid big time this past offseason, but the market seemed to conspire against him. After a great 2024, though, he'll likely opt out of what's left on his deal in the form of player options and see if he can get that nine-figure contract after all.
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Jack Flaherty, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers
4 of 10
2024 Stats: 112.2 IP, 8-5, 2.80 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 11.2 K/9, 3.1 bWAR
If you found yourself hopelessly swept up in last week's trade-deadline hysteria, you likely became pretty familiar with Jack Flaherty's work this season.
At the very least, you probably know he'll be a free agent at the end of the year and was one of the most noteworthy names on the move, relocating from the Tigers to the Dodgers just before the buzzer.
However, the 28-year-old's bounce-back campaign somehow wasn't enough for the first All-Star Game of his career.
Over the previous two seasons, it was starting to look like Flaherty would never regain his 2018-19 form. He barely averaged two strikeouts per walk, both because of an elevated BB rate and a deflated K rate. And after allowing 6.3 H/9 in his first two full seasons in the majors, he was all the way up to 9.9 in the two years before hitting free agency for the first time.
Flaherty got a one-year, $14 million deal from the Tigers, which was only slightly better than the one-year, $13 million deal Luis Severino got from the Mets after he followed up four injury-riddled years with a disastrous 2023 season.
But he is all the way back to the Cy Young candidate that he was five years ago. We're talking numbers near-identical to his 2.75 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 10.6 K/9 from 2019, albeit on pace for about 35 fewer innings pitched.
Maybe now that he's pitching for a team that will still be playing into October, Flaherty will get a little more love for what has been a spectacular season.
And if he keeps it up for another two months, that offseason bidding war is going to be extremely interesting to monitor.
Griffin Jax, RHP, Minnesota Twins
5 of 10
2024 Stats: 49.1 IP, 3-4, 8 SV, 17 holds, 2.01 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 11.9 K/9, 1.7 bWAR
When it comes to Minnesota Twins relievers, the name that gets brought up more than any other (and by a wide margin) is the one that routinely touches 103 mph on the radar gun: Jhoan Durán.
For as overpowering as Durán has been at times, though, Griffin Jax has been the MVP of that bullpen.
With Minnesota's flamethrower sidelined for the first month of the season, it was Jax who held down the fort with two wins, three holds and four saves by the end of April. He then settled back comfortably into a setup role, producing year-to-date marks in xERA, FIP and xFIP that all rank fourth in the majors among the 300-plus pitchers who have logged at least 40 innings.
Every part of his five-pitch offering has been deadly. Opposing hitters are 13-for-60 (.217 AVG) with 28 strikeouts against his sweeper, and that preposterously has been his most hittable pitch to date. Against everything else in his arsenal, opponents are hitting .182 or worse.
It's not the first time the 29-year-old has mowed down the competition for a good portion of the season, either. There was a stretch of two months last year when he went 19.1 scoreless innings, allowing just six hits and one walk while striking out 18 batters. He had a slightly less dominant six-week run toward the end of the 2022 campaign, too.
This is the first time he has been able to keep it going more than four months strong, though. And if the Twins are going to hang on to make the playoffs, Jax figures to be a key part of that equation.
George Kirby, RHP, Seattle Mariners
6 of 10
2024 Stats: 136.0 IP, 8-7, 3.04 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 8.7 K/9, 2.9 bWAR
It's fitting that George Kirby has become the king of strikeout-to-walk ratio, because his last name kind of looks like "K/BB" at a quick glance.
Kirby was already phenomenal in that department last season, averaging better than nine strikeouts per walk en route to some down-ballot votes for AL Cy Young. He's in a similar boat this year with a mark of 8.73 to go along with even better ERA and WHIP numbers than he had in 2023.
Barring a complete loss of control down the stretch—Kirby has now gone 54 consecutive starts without walking three or more hitters—he's going to finish the year with a K/BB ratio of 7.6 or better. And when he does, he'll join Greg Maddux and Pedro Martínez as the only pitchers in the past 35 years to have multiple seasons with both a ratio that high and enough innings pitched to qualify for an ERA title.
Let's reiterate that: Maddux, Martínez, Kirby. End of list. Sheesh.
Because he almost never walks batters, Kirby's FIP (2.71) is darn near the best in the majors. Among pitchers with at least 100 IP, only Chris Sale (2.32), Garrett Crochet (2.64) and Tarik Skubal (2.64) have been better.
As a result, the 26-year-old has quietly but quickly emerged as a top-five candidate for the AL Cy Young.
Yet, while teammates Logan Gilbert and Andrés Muñoz were named All-Stars, Kirby and his then-13-now-15 quality starts were left to watch from home.
Francisco Lindor, SS, New York Mets
7 of 10
2024 Stats: .253/.329/.455, 22 HR, 64 RBI, 23 SB, 4.4 bWAR
With a tip of the cap to Mark Vientos, it's the Mets shortstop who takes the cake here.
Since the start of the 2021 season, Francisco Lindor has been the sixth-most valuable position player in baseball, per FanGraphs. He finished top 10 in the NL MVP vote in each of the past two seasons, and he is well on his way to perhaps a top-five finish this year.
Yet, he hasn't been named an All-Star since 2019.
This year, in particular, he was a victim of circumstances. Trea Turner got voted in despite missing 39 games. Mookie Betts got a ton of votes, too. Elly De La Cruz was a no-brainer selection. CJ Abrams was chosen as Washington's mandatory representative.* And the Mets got out to such a rough start through the first two months that no one was particularly talking about how well Lindor was playing.
There's zero question, though, the 30-year-old is an All-Star-caliber player who deserves more love.
As with Matt Chapman, a big part of the problem for Lindor is that a major chunk of his value comes from his glove. He has won two Gold Gloves and a Platinum Glove, and he might win another Platinum Glove this year.
But his bat and baserunning are pretty good, too, likely headed for a second consecutive 30/30 campaign. If he gets there, he'll join Alfonso Soriano and Ryan Braun as the only players in the past two decades to do it in back-to-back years.
*Kyle Finnegan also went to the ASG, but as a last-minute injury replacement.
Brent Rooker, DH, Oakland Athletics
8 of 10
2024 Stats: .290/.367/.586, 28 HR, 81 RBI, 7 SB, 3.9 bWAR
Francisco Lindor missing the All-Star Game yet again was a crying shame.
Brent Rooker being left out was a travesty.
There were 18 qualified hitters who ended the first half with an OPS of .865 or better. All but one of those players was selected, with Rooker's .942 mark omitted for some reason. Instead, David Fry was chosen as the AL's DH reserve, despite not homering once in June and ultimately not homering once in July, either.
As penance for the sin, can we at least agree to throw Rooker some top-five votes for AL MVP if he continues to mash at a high level?
Not only is he comfortably in the top 10 in the majors in home runs, but here's the full list of players ahead of Rooker in wRC+: Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani.
That's it.
He hit .391 with 11 home runs in July and promptly added two more dingers in his first three games of August.
So, yeah, at least a little MVP chatter is warranted here.
It's not his fault the A's stink. If anything, he's the No. 1 reason they haven't been anywhere near as terrible as they were last year, or as historically awful as the White Sox are this season.
They really should have traded him ahead of the July 30 deadline, though. Three more years of team control on that slugging would have fetched Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas multiple pretty pennies.
Plus, it would have been fun to watch Rooker hit in a game that matters for a change.
Cade Smith, RHP, Cleveland Guardians
9 of 10
2024 Stats: 54.0 IP, 6-1, 1 SV, 17 holds, 2.17 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 12.5 K/9, 1.5 bWAR
Emmanuel Clase gets all of the love for his American League-leading 33 saves and his extremely nice 0.69 ERA, but has he even been Cleveland's most valuable reliever?
Rookie middle reliever Cade Smith has been spectacular, particularly when it comes to cleaning up other people's messes.
Of the 25 runners he has inherited this season, only one has scored. That lone mishap came on April 18 in what was a rough series for Smith against the Red Sox, allowing four earned runs (plus the inherited runner) in just one inning pitched.
Over his next 41 appearances, though, the 25-year-old posted a 1.45 ERA and an even better 1.30 FIP, not letting any of his 20 inherited runners cross the plate.
Speaking of FIP, Smith has the best in the majors.
Even after a slight implosion in a blown save against the Diamondbacks on Monday, which brought his ERA back up into the low twos, he has a 1.46 FIP for the year. The only other pitcher below 2.10 with at least 40 innings pitched is fellow rookie Mason Miller, who has a mark of 1.72 to go along with the nonstop attention he has generated this season.
That's because—just like Clase—Smith is averaging well north of six strikeouts per walk and has allowed just one home run all season.
For what it's worth, Hunter Gaddis (1.37 ERA, 2.54 FIP) is also having an outrageously good year in the Guardians bullpen. Tim Herrin (2.00 ERA, 2.99 FIP) has been no slouch, either.
If they can keep it up for another eight weeks, this is going to go down as the greatest bullpen of MLB's wild-card era.
Josh Smith, UTIL, Texas Rangers
10 of 10
2024 Stats: .275/.368/.438, 12 HR, 48 RBI, 7 SB, 3.3 bWAR
It's not often that one of the most valuable players for the reigning World Series champs flies below the national radar, but Josh Smith has found a way.
He stepped up in a major way when the Rangers lost Josh Jung for what turned out to be nearly four months just four days into the regular season.
Smith was supposed to be a back-up utilityman, but in late June, he was flirting with a batting title and ranked top-15 in the majors in OPS with a mark of .869—ahead of José Ramírez; narrowly behind Yordan Alvarez.
Even with Texas hosting the 2024 midsummer classic, though, the 27-year-old was the hard-luck loser in an AL 3B race that saw all of Ramírez, Rafael Devers, Jordan Westburg and Isaac Paredes make the cut instead.
Not to be deterred, Smith ended the first half of the season with a Herculean performance, hitting two home runs and driving in all four of Texas' runs in a crucial victory over the Astros. And in a showdown against that same loathed rival this past Monday, he came up down one with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning and delivered a walk-off two-run bomb, keeping their postseason dreams alive.
Nobody takes one for the team quite like Smith, either. He is leading the majors in times hit by pitch with 17 beanballs. He's not going to sniff Ty France's mark of 34 from last season, but it's a big part of why he ranks in the top 20 in on-base percentage among qualified hitters.
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