The 2024 MLB regular season is on its final lap before the postseason starts and mostly all of the major awards have long since been decided due to monstrous seasons by Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Tarik Skubal, and Chris Sale, who have likely run away with the MVP and Cy Young awards.
While the major awards are set in stone, there are plenty of other players who had breakout seasons and burst onto the scene this season, according to one notable insider.
MLB Network’s Jon Heyman shared his list of 2024’s breakout stars, which included Brent Rooker and JJ Bleday of the Oakland Athletics, Jurickson Profar of the San Diego Padres, Seth Lugo of the Kansas City Royals, Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs, and Ronel Blanco of the Houston Astros.
Anyone else missing from @JonHeyman's list ? 👀👀#MLBCentral pic.twitter.com/pzOeCY9aC8
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) September 25, 2024
Rooker, Profar, Lugo, and Imanaga made their first All-Star teams, which is most notable for Profar who has been in the league for over a decade and is heading into free agency during a career year.
Rooker and Bleday have ensured that the A’s haven’t been nearly as bad as many predicted, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to mash enough to keep the team in Oakland, as much-maligned team owner John Fisher officially announced their days in the city are over.
Imanaga has had a stellar rookie campaign that would have landed him a Rookie of the Year award in most years that didn’t have a Paul Skenes crashing the party.
The breakout stars are always one of the most enjoyable parts of the baseball season, and we can’t wait to see which other new stars emerge in the bright lights of the playoffs.
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