Welcome to the Rookie Roundup, a weekly look-in on baseball’s best and most interesting first-year players. Last week, we looked at Jackson Holliday’s resurgence and the Orioles’ fresh crop of other young stars. Next up is a peek at the wide-open National League wild-card race, which could be decided by several rookies playing key roles for contending clubs.
Last year’s trio of National League wild-card teams produced the eventual pennant-winning Arizona Diamondbacks and the Miami Marlins, who fought their way into the postseason despite a minus-57 run differential. So we need only to look into the very recent past to realize that this is a race that, no matter how curious the final results may be, can send shockwaves throughout October.
