Top 10 Budding Stars Making a Name for Themselves in 2024

Oftentimes, when a team reaches the next level, it’s with the help of a young player blossoming into a star. These youngsters serve as the X-factor on the roster.

Over the course of 162 games, a team’s success is determined by the players who surprise everyone and play past their expectations.

The 2023 seasons we saw from players like Gunnar Henderson and Elly De La Cruz were great examples of players giving their team much more value than anyone expected, considering their young ages. Fast forward to this season and both of those players are considered superstars in the game.

There are more superstars in the making unfolding before our eyes in 2024. This list will shine a light on the incredible efforts of players who entered the season with less than one year of MLB service time.

Some of these rookies have already put themselves on the map by getting selected for their first All-Star Game.

Heliot Ramos, Jackson Merrill, and Jordan Westburg have all put together impressive seasons, leading to their first appearances at the Midsummer Classic. We won’t dive into these players as much, since they’ve already proven themselves and earned plenty of attention.

Instead, let’s take a look at a crop of players who could be selected for their first All-Star Game next season. Perhaps they could even be the next potential superstars of the game.

Service time is listed as it was before the 2024 season started. Stats are as of games on August 7, 2024.

Honorable Mention

Austin Wells / NYY / C / Age: 24 / Service Time: 31 days

2024 Stats: 75 G / 258 PA / 115 wRC+ / 8 HR / 1 SB / 2.6 fWAR

Wells has been an outstanding defensive catcher for the Yankees this season. With Jose Trevino hitting the IL due to a strained quad, Wells has had to step up and has done so impressively.

The lefty-batting backstop is hitting to the tune of a 115 wRC+. Thanks to his plus defense behind the plate, he is on pace for 6.0 fWAR over a full, 600-PA season. He’s been close to average when facing southpaw pitchers but has posted a 118 wRC+ against righties.

Wells ranks as the sixth-best catcher (min. 250 plate appearances) in wRC+ in 2024 and fourth in fWAR. By FanGraphs’ defensive value, he’s behind only Patrick Bailey and Cal Raleigh.

10. Joey Ortiz

MIL / 3B / Age: 26 / Service Time: 30 days

2024 Stats: 91 G / 325 PA / 109 wRC+ / 7 HR / 6 SB / 2.0 fWAR

Joey Ortiz has gone on a skid over the past few weeks. The 26-year-old has hit to just a 25 wRC+ in the last 30 days.

Don’t let his recent struggles distract you from the fact that Ortiz has posted 2.0 fWAR in his first full season to this point. Through 359 total plate appearances at the big league level (including a cup of coffee in 2023), Ortiz has been an average major league hitter by wRC+. Yet, he has improved that figure by nine percent in 2024.

The former Baltimore Oriole struggled mightily through his first 15 major league games with the O’s in 2023. He’s since proven to have improved his game enough to be a valuable everyday player.

Ortiz is playing elite defense at 3B, while also providing manager Pat Murphy with positional utility. Ortiz has seen time at both 2B and SS in 2024.

Though Ortiz’s production has ticked down since the All-Star break, he was a 128 wRC+ hitter in the first half. The good news is he’s still making an absurd amount of contact. In the last 30 days, he’s maintained a 93.1% Z-Contact rate and a chase rate below the major league average.

With his solid glove at the hot corner and his feel for contact, Ortiz can develop into one of the most consistent third basemen in the league as the years go on. (That is, if the Brewers don’t move him over to shortstop next year.)

9. Tyler Fitzgerald

SFG / SS/OF / Age: 26 / Service Time: 11 days

2024 Stats: 51 G / 153 PA / 186 wRC+ / 12 HR / 7 SB / 2.6 fWAR

Though Tyler Fitzgerald‘s sample size is small, his production has been anything but. In just 51 games, the righty-batting utility man has given the Giants a fantastic bat to plug into shortstop.

That position has been a struggle to fill for the organization ever since Brandon Crawford began declining several years ago. Now, it truly looks like they may have their answer at shortstop following the departure of their long-time captain of the infield.

Through just over 150 plate appearances, Fitzgerald has posted 2.6 fWAR. If he were to keep up this pace over the course of a full season (600 plate appearances as an estimation), he’d accrue over 10 fWAR.

to be fair, it’s very unlikely he will maintain this level of production, considering his 30.7% strikeout rate, but he’s made tangible changes to his game that have allowed for this newfound success.

It started at Triple-A, where he improved his wRC+ from 2023 by 53 points (103 to 156). His numbers in Triple-A prove that this stint of success isn’t totally a flash in the pan. He hit eight homers in 17 games while maintaining a .718 slugging percentage in that time.

Fitzgerald has been fundamentally sound in three of the most important parts of the game for a baseball player: defense, baserunning, and batted ball data. He’s been fantastic defensively both on the infield dirt and in the outfield, when needed.

His top-of-the-line sprint speed has earned him seven steals in a limited amount of games. To top it off, his 12.9% barrel rate ranks sixth among shortstops with at least 150 plate appearances.

What’s more, he has somehow managed to get hotter than he was previously in the last 30 days. Fitzgerald has posted a 274 wRC+, accumulated nearly 2.0 fWAR, and hit 11 of his 12 homers in just the last month of games.

If he were to have sustained this level of play for a longer time, there’s no doubt he’d be way higher on this list. Only time will tell if Fitzgerald can continue to be this valuable to the Giants, but I’d say the future is bright for this 26-year-old.

8. Michael Busch

CHC / 1B / Age: 26 / Service Time: 45 days

2024 Stats: 108 G / 400 PA / 148 wRC+ / 15 HR / 2 SB / 2.2 fWAR

Michael Busch has become one of the Cubs’ best regulars since Opening Day. Busch was acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the start of the 2024 season. In his first full season, the 26-year-old is second in fWAR and wRC+ among Cubs hitters with at least 150 plate appearances.

First-year manager Craig Counsel has consistently relied on Busch to be in the lineup, as the lefty batter is tied for the most games played on the Cubs’ roster with Ian Happ (108). His 124 wRC+ ranks sixth among qualified first basemen in the league. That’s an impressive feat for a player in his first full season.

Busch’s consistency at the plate has been nothing short of excellent. He’s yet to post a below-average wRC+ in any month of the 2024 season. He’s playing every day and playing well.

In addition, Busch has played outstanding defense at first base. As a prospect, his glove was far from his strong suit. That narrative has turned on its head. He ranks in the 87th percentile in OAA this year with 3.

The strikeout rate being above 30% is a slight worry, though he’s hardly let it impact his overall results. Something to look out for in the future is his .354 BABIP, which ranks sixth in baseball. His batted ball data is elite, so I tend to not read into that figure all too much.

Regardless of his potential luck on balls in play, Busch has plugged right into a major league lineup and been one of the best hitters for a team that’s still in the hunt for a playoff spot.

7. Masyn Winn

STL / SS / Age: 22 / Service Time: 45 days

2024 Stats: 105 G / 430 PA / 108 wRC+ / 9 HR / 10 SB / 2.7 fWAR

In his first full big league season, Masyn Winn has cemented himself as a top-10 shortstop. He ranks eighth at the position in fWAR and tenth in wRC+.

There were plenty of questions surrounding Winn as he entered 2024. The shortstop position for St. Louis was a weak point in most preseason projections. One of the reasons that Brandon Crawford was signed in February was to give the Cardinals a security blanket in case Winn’s 2023 struggles continued.

Yet, Winn has mightily improved as a player since his 37-game stint last season. Last year, Winn posted a miserable 29 wRC+ and a .172 batting average. Since the beginning of 2024, he’s been 8% better than the league-average hitter and is playing a great shortstop.

Because of this, Crawford has spent most of the season on the bench, playing just 17 games at short.

Winn doesn’t make the loudest contact, and the batted ball data doesn’t jump off the page. However, the 22-year-old has some of the best tools of any shortstop in baseball.

He offers electric speed and has swiped 10 bases in just over 100 games this year. The most impressive part of his game is the defense he provides.

His blend of range and arm strength makes him one of the best shortstops in the game already. He’ll continue to improve as he gets older, giving him the potential to be the league’s best defensive shortstop one day.

That arm strength ranks second among shortstops, behind only Oneil Cruz. Winn has thrown the hardest ball of any infielder this season at 101.2 MPH.

6. Patrick Bailey

SFG / C / Age: 25 / Service Time: 136 games

2024 Stats: 85 G / 327 PA / 101 wRC+ / 7 HR / 3 SB / 3.7 fWAR

Since his debut last season, Patrick Bailey has been the most valuable defensive player in baseball. Since 2023, he’s thrown out 48 runners attempting to steal on 115 total attempts. That ranks third among all catchers.

The two backstops ahead of him, Cal Raleigh and Shea Langeliers, have played in at least 40 more games than Bailey.

He’s a savant of all things catching. He ranks in the 100th percentile in both caught stealing rate and framing, as well as in the 97th percentile in pop time.

His 3.7 fWAR ranks 14th in all of baseball, and although that figure is generated primarily from his defensive value, Bailey has improved at the plate since last season.

The switch hitter was a 78-wRC+ hitter in 97 games in 2023, that has jumped to a 101 wRC+ in 2024. He’s cut back on strikeouts and is drawing walks at a rate nearly doubled from last season.

His offensive numbers may be middling, but for a catcher, and an elite one at that, anything that Bailey can provide on offense is gravy.

5. Lawrence Butler

OAK / RF / Age: 24 / Service Time: 52 days

Lawrence Butler has long been one of my favorite prospects in baseball.

For an organization like the Oakland Athletics, an electric factory of a player like Butler is just what they needed in order to bring fun energy and exciting play to the table.

Butler made his MLB debut in the latter part of 2023. Through 42 games played that season, the young lefty batter posted a 60 wRC+ and looked outmatched by big league pitching, only walking 3.1% of the time.

He broke camp with the major league team but was sent down after only 121 plate appearances. From Opening Day to mid-May, Butler’s production nearly mirrored that of his 2023 MLB season. He posted a mere 67 wRC+ and a strikeout rate just barely under 30%.

When he got to Triple-A, he performed better, but he was still hitting below average and looked like he needed to continue to develop prior to being called up and becoming an impact player in a big league lineup.

Yet, since he got called back up on June 18, Butler has been on an absolute tear. He’s posted a 167 wRC+, hit 11 homers, and swiped six bases, having yet to be thrown out.

His season has had its ups and downs, but Butler is looking more and more like a budding star as the season has progressed.

Something that has stuck out to me is his consistency between facing lefties and righties alike. He’s a 121-wRC+ hitter when facing righties and a 122-wRC+ hitter on the season against southpaws.

He’s been able to spray the ball all over the field and make enough contact to produce some fantastic numbers on the stat sheet. His consistent loud contact has led to a 91.9 mph average exit velocity, ranking the 24-year-old in the 88th percentile in that category.

He’s not the rangiest of defenders, but his above-average arm gives him more than enough value to stick in RF. He’s also swiped nine bags on the season. Look out for Butler to be an easy 20/20 candidate in 2025 with the potential to go 30/20.

4. Wilyer Abreu

BOS / RF / Age: 25 / Service Time: 41 days

2024 Stats: 86 G / 297 PA / 131 wRC+ / 12 HR / 7 SB / 2.4 fWAR

Wilyer Abreu was one of my favorite under-the-radar prospects ahead of this season. He played in 28 games in 2023 and posted a 135 wRC+. His batted ball data looked fantastic and gave him impressive power potential as a 24-year-old.

Abreu was acquired in the 2022 trade between Houston and Boston that sent catcher Christian Vázquez to the Astros.

His production in his age-25 season has not slowed. He’s posted a 131 wRC+ while manning right field for the Red Sox. He’s cranked 12 bombs due to a mix of his tendency to hit the ball much harder than the average player and his ability to lift the ball; Abreu is currently running a 48.1% flyball rate.

On the season, he’s posted a .513 slugging percentage, which ranks sixth in the league among qualified hitters 25 years old or younger.

Over the past month, Abreu’s bat has gotten red hot. He’s posted a 205 wRC+ and a 63.6% hard-hit rate in his last 71 plate appearances.

He’s not the quickest player by sprint speed, but he’s been valuable in the steals game in spots, swiping seven bases to this point in the season.

Something that can take his game to a new level is his ability to hit against same-handed pitching. The lefty batter has just a 50 wRC+ and a .286 slugging percentage on the season against southpaw pitchers.

3. Mark Vientos

NYM / 3B / Age: 24 / Service Time: 132 days

2024 Stats: 66 G / 259 PA / 148 wRC+ / 16 HR / 2.2 fWAR

Mark Vientos should be one of the most familiar names on this list. He debuted for the Mets in 2022 when he was 22 years old and made appearances in 65 games in 2023.

Over the course of his 274 plate appearances from 2022 to 2023, Vientos hit to the tune of just a 68 wRC+ and a .354 slugging percentage while striking out over 30% of the time.

In 2024, through 259 plate appearances, he’s posted a 148 wRC+ and hit 16 homers. If we look at the ratio of homers to games played, Vientos ranks first among the players mentioned in this article.

Vientos began the season in Triple-A before getting called up at the end of April for a short stint. He was sent back down, then returned to the big leagues in mid-May and has been there ever since.

The 24-year-old has become one of the best young power hitters in the game, posting a .538 slugging percentage. That ranks 15th in all of baseball (min. 250 PA).

In 2024, he’s been consistently hitting a home run in one of every four games played.

Something that has helped improve Vientos’ approach at the plate has been focusing on going back up the middle and even to the opposite field. While his pull rate has technically increased, this mindset of being able to still get pop to the larger side of the field has given Vientos a more consistent bat in terms of contact rate.

The young third baseman talked about a conversation he had with Carlos Beltrán that improved his mentality in the batter’s box:

He’s also matured as a hitter, cutting way back on chasing out of the zone. What used to be an unjustifiable 37.3% O-Swing rate has dropped to just above 30%. While that is still a bit higher than the league average, it’s a mighty improvement in just one offseason.

Vientos has also improved his game as a defender. If this level of play at third base continues, his fWAR ceiling projection will rise considerably in the years ahead.

In his 81 major league games prior to 2024, Vientos accumulated -6.8 defensive value according to FanGraphs. In 67 games in 2024, he’s been worth -0.7. Just like his chase rate, it’s still below average, but it’s a remarkable improvement, nonetheless.

2. Brenton Doyle

COL / CF / Age: 26 / Service Time: 161 days

2024 Stats: 108 G / 441 PA / 106 wRC+ / 19 HR / 21 SB / 2.9 fWAR

Brenton Doyle might be the most improved player in baseball from last season to this year. He got a healthy run of big league time in 2023, appearing in 126 games for the Rockies where he posted a 43 wRC+.

That was the worst figure posted by any hitter in baseball with at least 400 plate appearances last season.

In 2023, it looked like Doyle would simply just be a glove-first center fielder with the potential to swipe 30-plus bags in a full season. While both of those things still ring true in 2024, his production offensively has taken an unexpected turn for the best.

Doyle has cut his K% down by nearly nine percent from last year and bumped his slugging percentage up from .343 to .469. He’s hit nine more home runs in 18 fewer games when comparing his totals from ’23 and ’24 to this point.

He’s coming off of a month of July that saw the righty outfielder hit to a 208 wRC+. Despite his season total wRC+ being just eight percent better than the league average, Doyle has been one of the best all-around outfielders in the sport.

He’s already swiped over 20 bases and currently ranks ninth in Fielding Run Value, per Baseball Savant.

Doyle leads all Rockies’ hitters in fWAR, homers, stolen bases, and wRC+ this season. He’s been a much-needed bright spot for a struggling Colorado team in 2024. He’s the type of player with the skill set to put fans into seats at Coors Field even when the team is struggling.

1. Colton Cowser

BAL / OF / Age: 24 / Service Time: 43 days

2024 Stats: 105 G / 364 PA / 124 wRC+ / 16 HR / 7 SB / 3.1 fWAR

It should come as no surprise that an Oriole has landed at the top of this list of young emerging players. Baltimore has shown no signs of slowing their pipeline of exciting young talent in the past several seasons.

Colton Cowser is currently the favorite to win AL Rookie of the Year at -155 odds on BetMGM.

After a 2023 debut that saw the young lefty play just 26 games at the MLB level, Cowser is showing how much he improved over the offseason. He posted a 40 wRC+ in his short-lived 2023 season. This year, on the other hand, he has been the most consistent rookie hitter in all of baseball.

Cowser has been with the O’s for the entirety of 2024 and started in RF on Opening Day. He didn’t take long to show off his talents at the dish, hitting for a 178 wRC+ and crushing six homers in 86 plate appearances through April.

His production slowed in May, but since June 1, he’s slashed .257/.328/.461, good for a 124 wRC+.

The 24-year-old provides the O’s with fantastic defense in multiple spots in the outfield. He’s primarily played LF but has seen time in CF, as well. He ranks as the 10th most valuable player defensively by Baseball Savant’s Fielding Run Value.

He’s been the second most valuable hitter by fWAR on the Orioles this season, second only to AL MVP candidate, Gunnar Henderson. His homer total has helped boost Baltimore’s offense to first place in MLB in home runs in 2024.

Cowser looks like he’s been in the league for several seasons at this point when in reality, he’s logged under 450 big-league plate appearances.

The future is bright for this outfielder. One area he could improve in is his ability to hit against lefty pitching. It’s certainly not a weak point for him, however, since he’s still hitting to a 105 wRC+ against southpaws this year.

He typically leads off when Baltimore faces a righty starter and drops to the middle/bottom of the order against lefty pitching. More experience in the big leagues will likely improve his numbers against same-handed pitchers, but even if it doesn’t, Cowser has proven to be an immensely valuable piece to Baltimore this year.