Arizona Diamondbacks 2024 Player Review: Corbin Carroll

The star outfielder had a slow and scary start to 2024 but finished with a flourish with plenty of contact and power.

Aug 20, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Corbin Carroll (7) celebrates after hitting a home run against the Miami Marlins during the fifth inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

This article is part of a series chronicling the individual seasons of players who appeared for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2024.

Reviews for players who still have rookie eligibility for 2025 will appear in our prospect season reviews. Players are presented in the reverse order of their aWAR, an average of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs WAR.

Corbin Carroll, Left-Handed Outfielder, Age: 24

2024 Contract Status: $3,625,000

The Diamondbacks made a terrific choice when they drafted Corbin Carroll 16th overall in the 2019 MLB Draft and signed him to a $3,745,500 bonus in order to get the high school prospect into their organization.

After a strong cup of coffee in 2022, Carroll was signed to a big long-term deal with high expectations for 2023. All he did was start an All-Star Game, lead the D-backs to the World Series, and become the team's first ever NL Rookie of the Year winner.

That set even higher expectations for 2024 for Carroll, who was entering just his second full season in MLB. Over the off-season, he had adjusted his swing to hopefully help him reach high fastballs.

That turned out to be a foreboding change to make as he slumped bad in Spring Training and then in the early parts of 2024. He was consistently hitting the ball on the ground to the right side and hitting pop-flies. He made far too many easy outs despite his prodigious power-speed combination.

On April 28, he was hitting .189. From May 13 to June 6, his batting average was below the Mendoza line, which increased pressure on him to perform and raised the chatter that perhaps a trip to the minors was in order.

There were concerns and fears that Carroll's shoulder, that he'd had surgery on in the past, was causing issues or that he would be unable to fix his swing in the middle of the season.

Through June 5, those fears had a lot of potential truth, as he batted .192/.278/.280/.558 with 44 hits in 60 games. He was taking his walks with 25 of them to 52 strikeouts, but he wasn't stealing bases either with just nine stolen bases. The power was nearly completely absent for him aside from his speed getting him doubles.

However, something changed on June 6, as Carroll began to find more holes on the field and obtain more hits. Over the final 22 games of June, Carroll hit .276 and had an OPS of .803. The home runs weren't there but he had seven doubles and two triples. The power was starting to come back.

July rolled around and he found his power stroke, albeit at the cost of a high batting average as over 23 games, he hit just .221.

But he hit six home runs, three doubles, and two triples and the theft of bases was back. He stole six bases. He slugged .512 and had an OPS of .822. It seemed he had some bad luck this month with an uncharacteristic BABIP of just .210.

It seemed that the Corbin Carroll of old was finding his groove at the plate, and coincidentally, this was occurring the same time as when he returned to solely playing right field full-time and not splitting time in center field. Whether that was a factor is unknown, but it is something to notice.

In August, both the contact and power were reunited and Carroll exploded at the plate. Over 27 games, he had 11 homers and slugged .700 while he hit .280. He had an OPS of 1.042 and it should come as no surprise that two of Arizona's best record months were in July and August once Carroll started hitting like he did in 2023.

Like the rest of the offense, Carroll cooled off in September. This was an inopportune time for a team-wide slump, but the numbers Carroll put up were still far better than his first few months.

Over 26 games, Carroll hit .245/.361/.429/.790 with 10 extra-base hits including three homers and an eye-popping 13 stolen bases. His return to 2023 form was now complete with him stealing bases with ease again.

Unfortunately, the Diamondbacks didn't make the playoffs, so Carroll was unable to continue his return to form in the Postseason. But he will have a full off-season to prepare and mentally reset for the 2025 season in hopes of yet another big season as the franchise star.

Overall, Carroll had an OPS of .749. He led the National League with 14 triples. He homered 22 times and had 74 RBI, numbers similar to 2023. He had 35 stolen bases, 73 walks, and 130 strikeouts.

He lowered his strikeout rate by 0.4% to 19% while raising his walk rate by 1.9% to 10.7%. His OPS+ was 107 while his wRC+ was also 107. Both were seven percent above average but a far cry from his numbers in 2023.

In the end, his hard hit rate was nearly the same as 2023 while his exit velocity was better. His fly-ball rate rose just two percent to 39.2% while his line drive rate dropped by 2.3% to 16.7%. Those were the only eyebrow-raising numbers from that sphere of hitting.

The other concern is that his numbers dropped off steeply against fastballs and breaking pitches in 2024 compared to 2023. In 2023, he hit fastballs at a clip of .296, but in 2024, that number fell to .249.

Against breaking balls in 2023, he hit .295 and in 2024, he hit just .182. That's a stark decrease and a number that has to be fixed in 2025 if he is to return to his Rookie of the Year form.

2025 and Beyond

2025 Contract status: Under Contract through 2030, 2025 Salary of $5.625 MM

Corbin Carroll is far too talented for 2024 to be who he is for the rest of his career. He was clearly under a lot of pressure to perform, especially as the slow start got further into the season and he became increasingly worried that he would be sent down to the minors.

The Diamondbacks support him and know what he can do. It's not reasonable to expect him to replicate 2023 for every season of his career, but it's reasonable to also wonder if he could do better than that as he gets closer to his prime.

He's just entering his age-24 season and there' s plenty of belief that Carroll will have another All-Star caliber season especially if you trust the projections system. He is the franchise player and the team will only make it as far as their best player takes them.

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