Jake McCarthy Had a Tumultuous Season in 2023

Jake McCarthy encountered setbacks and a tough season at the plate but is set to improve for 2024

This article is part of a series of player reviews for the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a surprising and marvelous year for the team as they won 84 games to make the postseason. They advanced to Game Five of the World Series before bowing out to the Texas Rangers. There are 54 players in all that had at least one at-bat or pitched at least one inning for the team this past season. They are being presented in reverse order of their aWAR (average WAR-Wins Above Replacement) produced, which is the average of Baseball Reference and Fangraphs WAR. These are their season stories.

Jake McCarthy had a tough season at the plate, but his career numbers give hope to a rebound / Jake Oliver

Jake McCarthy entered the 2023 season as one of the team's every day starting outfielders. He was fresh off a season in which he finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and had a 117 OPS+. The hopes were high. Alas, the results failed to match the hopes, although there is hope for the future.

McCarthy got off to a rough start, going 1 for his first 13 at-bats. That led to him hitting just .143 with a .467 OPS and a severely unlucky .160 BABIP in his first 22 games. He had 12 strikeouts against a stronger five walks, but the hits just weren't coming. He wasn't able to utilize his speed either as he just wasn't getting on base. This led the team to option him to Triple-A and play with the Reno Aces.

He would play with the Aces for 22 games, from April 27th to May 24th. Over that span, his bat was on fire. He hit .333 with a .952 OPS and nine extra-base hits in 30 hits. He walked 11 times with just 13 strikeouts indicating that he was seeing the ball quite well. However, one does have to account that the Reno ballpark is quite similar to Colorado's. It's far easier to get hits there than it is anywhere else.

That earned him a call back to the Diamondbacks as they hoped he would provide a spark to their offense. It worked as from May 26th to June 30th, McCarthy hit .311 with a .801 OPS and an unsustainable .383 BABIP. Nearly all of these hits were singles, as only seven  of his 32 hits in this span went for extra bases. Luckily, thanks to his speed, he had 15 stolen bases, but the Diamondbacks would've liked to have seen him drive the ball for power. This would've meant that he was earning the results versus being somewhat lucky with singles dropping in for hits. Still, he had a healthy 10/22 walk-strikeout ratio and was getting on base consistently. That was what the D-backs needed to see.

In July, the tables turned as while he played nearly every day, the singles stopped falling in as frequently. He hit .262 which was near his career average, but his OPS slumped to .666 for July. He had only three extra-base hits and four RBI. His walks dropped too to just seven against 20 strikeouts. His speed was still a threat with six stolen bases, but he wasn't getting on base enough to make teams pay.

This trend of hitting without power continued into August. In his 11 August games, he hit just .192 with an OPS of .515. This was simply unplayable. The luck swung too far as his BABIP was a horrible .208. He still wasn't getting on base enough or hitting for power. Of his five hits, zero went for extra bases. He did walk four times to just two strikeouts, but the damage was done. The D-backs, while competing for the playoffs, simply couldn't afford to keep giving McCarthy any more chances. They sent him down to Triple-A for the second time.

McCarthy made the most of his time with the Reno Aces. Over 23 games, he obliterated the baseball. In 23 games and 116 plate appearances, McCarthy hit .383 with a 1.059 OPS. The Diamondbacks wanted to see power and he gave it to them. He had nine doubles, two triples, and five home runs with 19 RBI. He walked six times to 16 strikeouts, a decent ratio. Plus, he added in 11 stolen bases. This turnaround motivated the D-backs to recall him for the stretch run and to serve as a lethal late-game pinch runner and defensive specialist. 

While the at-bats were few and far between in mid-late September, McCarthy did his job for Arizona. He didn't hit well and didn't walk once, but the D-backs got what they needed out of McCarthy to make the playoffs.  Unfortunately he suffered a severe oblique strain right before Game One of the NL Wild Card Series against the Brewers, . This knocked him out for the team's entire postseason run to the World Series.

2024 Status and Outlook

McCarthy is now getting ready for the 2024 season. He's fully healthy and recovered from his oblique strain. Manager Torey Lovullo has challenged McCarthy to focus on "getting a little bit more finish...behind his wing offensively, be more impactful". The team thinks that McCarthy is "very dynamic and can go straight bat-to-ball when he needs to...we want that to be the case." They want him to focus on his timing issues and get back to being more "dynamic" while continuing to "be a threat on the bases...defensively continue to getting better as a right fielder". McCarthy is still in his pre-arbitration years. He isn't eligible for arbitration until 2026 and won't hit free agency until 2029. McCarthy is entering his age 26 season and is set up to be a primary outfielder for the Diamondbacks.

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