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2023 SnakePit Awards: Rookie of the Year – Corbin Carroll

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World Series - Texas Rangers v Arizona Diamondbacks - Game Four
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

It was clos… Oh, who am I trying to kid?

In fact, we have what I think is probably the first unanimous choice in the history of the SnakePit Awards. Yes, every single person who took up the solemn responsibility of voting, chose Corbin Carroll as Rookie of the Year. There weren’t even “token” or “joke” votes for any of the other four candidates. I am quite proud of you for that. 🙂 It’s hardly surprising: considering he was a unanimous choice for National League Rookie of the Year, winning the team award has to be among the most easily forecast results in the history of easily forecast results. Put it like this: I almost didn’t bother opening up the survey results form #SavedMeAClick. But 100% it is, and entirely justifiable a decision too.

The problem is, what more is there to be said about Carroll? We already wrote about his fabulous 2023 campaign, when he won the NL award. We’ll also be writing about him again next month, as the Player Review series heads towards the finish line (I don’t want to spoiler anything, but Carroll is quite highly ranked there…). I don’t want to steal ish95’s thunder, after he won the contributor cage fight for the honor of writing that piece. There may be an MVP piece too. So instead, I’m writing up Carroll’s top five games of the year. These are largely subjective, but I have taken into account things like Win Probability, number of times on base, total bases, stolen bags, etc. However, I’m listing them in chronological order.

June 9 @ DET

Three hits, all of them for extra-bases. Two home-runs, including a grand-slam – the first multi-homer game of Carroll’s major-league career (hey, you can’t steal bases when you’re trotting around them…). Five runs driven in, plus a pair scored. Ten total bases. Never mind being arguably the most productive contest of the season for Carroll, it was among the most productive by any Diamondbacks’ hitter. His slam capped off a seven-run inning, tied for the biggest in the year for Arizona.

July 18 @ ATL

This was a wild one, eventually won 16-13 by the Diamondbacks. Carroll certainly played his part, scoring three runs, as well as driving in a pair. A triple in the opening inning scored the first of the game’s twenty-nine runs, and an RBI single in the sixth brought Arizona to within two, at 9-11. He also stole two bags and, most remarkably of all, Corbin was strike out, but still managed to reach third base on the pitch, and came home later in the inning. If ever there were an example of “Create Chaos”, this was it.

September 20 vs. SFG

Quite the game for Carroll here. He had four hits, scored three runs, stole two bases, including his fiftieth, and also hit his twenty-fifth home-run of the season. Not a bad Wednesday afternoon’s work. While the 7-1 final score made it hardly a close contest, it is worth noting San Francisco scored first – indeed, their first batter went deep. Carroll was then responsible for scoring both the tying and go-ahead runs for Arizona, before then striking the first blow in a four-run seventh inning, with that long ball.

NLWC Game 1: October 3 @ MIL

The first Diamondbacks playoff game in six years ended in victory, and Carroll played a huge part in it. He reached base four times, on two hits and two walks. No hit was bigger for the D-backs than his third-inning home-run after Arizona had quickly fallen into a 3-0 hole. His two-run shot brought Arizona back within one, and made it a game again. Ketel Marte then tied it up, and the D-backs were on their way to the World Series. Carroll’s +23.6% Win Probability led all Diamondbacks on the night.

NLCS Game 7: October 24 @ PHI

Carroll saved his best for last in the Division Series. He had gone just 3-for-23 over the first six games, but matched that hit tally by the middle of the fifth inning. He had three singles, stole two bases and drove in a pair of runs, with one of those singles and a sacrifice fly. His third single tied the game at 2-2, and Carroll’s subsequent steal of second set up Gabriel Moreno’s go-ahead RBI single. Corbin then added a much-needed insurance run with his sacrifice fly in the seventh. Again, he led our hitters in WP, with +21.9%.

Bonus video! June 1 vs. COL

Carroll’s biggest Win Probability of the season was in this contest, at +60.1%. It was far from his best contest by most measures, as he only had one hit in the game. Corbin had gone 0-for-4 before coming to the plate, with Arizona down to their final out. They did have two men on base, and that was all Carroll needed. He brought both men home with a double to left-center, which was apparently his first ever walk-off hit at any level. It gave the Diamondbacks their first four-game sweep of the Rockies for more than twenty years,

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