Man, I didn't realize all these rooks were doing so well!
The six MLB rookies off to the hottest starts in 2026Buster Olney
Mar 31, 2026, 07:00 AM ET
To say MLB's touted 2026 rookies are thriving would be an understatement.
The Cleveland Guardians' Chase DeLauter, with his quick, powerful swing, has more home runs (four) than 12 teams in the majors. The Detroit Tigers' Kevin McGonigle has batted in as many runs (four) as the entire San Francisco Giants team has scored. JJ Wetherholt already has a curtain call and walk-off for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Carson Benge, who played just a handful of games above Double-A before the New York Mets' opener, is already being feted in Citi Field. The Cincinnati Reds' Sal Stewart compiled your basic .769 on-base percentage through the first weekend. Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox homered in each of his first three major league games, joining DeLauter as only the third and fourth rookies in history to do so.
The common denominator between these six -- and some of the other young players in the sport -- seems to be this unusual poise.
"Watching them, you can tell they believe they belong," one high-ranked MLB executive said. "They are not surprised. They are not in awe. They expect to do well."
Said another: "I don't know what to attribute it to, but you don't see the kind of anxiety that you would expect with guys so young."
These six rookies, with their early offense and poise at the plate, have made immediate impacts on their teams days into the new season. Here's a breakdown of what each has done so far -- and how they got to this point.
Chase DeLauter, RF, Cleveland GuardiansThe Guardians opened the season with a series in Seattle, and DeLauter hit two homers in the opener, another in the second game and a fourth in the third. He hit those home runs off starters Logan Gilbert and George Kirby and closer Andres Munoz -- and DeLauter is the only player to homer off all three of those pitchers, ESPN researcher Paul Hembekides noted.
Despite being listed at 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, DeLauter has never been a prolific home run hitter -- he never reached double-digit homer totals in any season in college and accumulated 20 total in his first three professional seasons. He does not like to strike out, Guardians hitting coach Grant Fink noted, and at each level DeLauter has played at, he has typically had more walks than strikeouts. He's served well in this aspect by his swing, which is short and quick, with his hands close to his body, a little like former Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley's swing.
"When you watch it, it looks at times like he doesn't finish it," said Fink. "But it has unbelievable force in it."
There's an ease and comfort to DeLauter's game that first appeared last October. He had lost a lot of time to foot and core injuries after the Guardians drafted him with the No. 16 pick in 2022, accumulating just 138 games in the minors over the past three years. But Cleveland, desperate for hitters to complement Jose Ramirez in its lineup, promoted DeLauter to make his major league debut in last year's wild-card series against Detroit. Grant Fink, the Guardians' hitting coach, remembers watching DeLauter and how calm he was under highly unusual circumstances.
"There are not a lot of people he gets intimidated by," Fink said.
Following his performance over the weekend, DeLauter was named American League Player of the Week on Monday.
Sal Stewart, 3B, Cincinnati RedsThe Reds drafted Stewart 16 picks after DeLauter was selected. Stewart had 58 plate appearances for Cincinnati late last season and was sent into the winter with this advice: Work on becoming more athletic. And he took that seriously. When the team asked him about playing winter ball, Stewart declined, saying he wanted to focus on improving his body by working out in his hometown of Miami. He arrived at camp 22 pounds lighter, moving better and showing more of the athleticism that the Reds' staff knew he possessed. In fact, Stewart ended up winning a free throwing shooting contest the Reds held during spring training.
Through Cincinnati's first four games, he is 8-for-12 with five walks and one strikeout, never looking more comfortable than when he's in the batter's box, focused and making adjustments from pitch to pitch.
"He knows how to hit with two strikes," Nick Krall, the Reds' head of baseball operations, said.
Kevin McGonigle, SS, Detroit TigersMcGonigle, 21, had four hits in the Tigers' opener in San Diego, becoming the third-youngest player with four or more hits on Opening Day in the past 100 major league seasons. Then, in the second game, he came to the plate with the bases loaded in the eighth inning against Wandy Peralta, the veteran lefty who has made a career of cutting down left-handed hitters like McGonigle in the late innings. But McGonigle kept fighting off tough pitches against Peralta. The pitcher turned his head in some frustration at one point, after McGonigle fouled off a pitch that Peralta thought would finish off the rookie.
"He was locked in," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch wrote in a text, "and just competing. He didn't look overmatched and he didn't look overwhelmed."
On the 10th pitch of the plate appearance against Peralta, McGonigle ripped a two-run single into right field, driving in two runs. "This young man," Tigers broadcaster Jason Benetti exclaimed, "is totally unfazed by these lights in the show!"
McGonigle's manager agreed with that sentiment: "One of the takeaways was he doesn't overthink at the plate, and trusts himself. It was an epic at-bat at the perfect time," Hinch added.
Munetaka Murakami, 3B, Chicago White SoxMLB teams had a lot of questions about Murakami -- surrounding his swing and his defense -- despite the big power he showed in Japan's NPB. Some evaluators wondered privately if he would be overwhelmed by high velocity. In the end, he signed a two-year, $34 million contract with the White Sox -- far, far below some media expectations.
"He is super determined," White Sox head of baseball operation Chris Getz said of Murakami. "It's very clear he wants to prove to someone that he's real. He's very serious."
And very dangerous for pitchers: Murakami homered in each of Chicago's three games against the Milwaukee Brewers. "Put the home runs aside -- the quality of his at-bats really stood out," Getz said, mentioning how his rookie faced some of the Brewers' hard throwers, such as Jacob Misiorowski.
It's clear to Getz that Murakami is not just an all-or-nothing slugger, with how he adapts throughout the ball-strike count, and Getz expects that as the 26-year-old faces more major league pitching he'll continue to make adjustments.
Carson Benge, RF, New York MetsOf these six rookies, Benge might have been the closest to starting the season in the minors, due to his relatively short tenure as a professional. The No. 19 pick in 2024, Benge reached Double-A by the end of that year, and he had just 24 games in Triple-A at the end of 2025. He was told at the outset of camp this year that he'd be given a chance to make the Mets, and he did everything they asked. He turned out to be everything they had hoped for, too, with an .874 OPS in spring training, and eventually won the right-field job to appear in New York's Opening Day lineup.
"What stands out right away is how composed and calm he is," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza wrote in a text following Benge's opening weekend. "Nothing really seems to speed him up. He's got a really mature approach for a player his age, especially in big moments. You can see the confidence, but it's not forced."
Benge, who also drew two walks and stole one base on Opening Day, connected for his first career home run in his fourth at-bat in the seventh inning. He drove the ball 385 feet, jumping for joy after seeing the ball disappear over the right-field wall.
"Physically," Mendoza wrote, "the tools are there. He's got the arm, the athleticism. But it's the instincts that have really jumped out to me. He reads the game well, and makes smart decisions."
JJ Wetherholt, SS, St. Louis CardinalsIn his major league debut, Wetherholt smashed a ball into the grass beyond the center-field wall in St. Louis, 425 feet from home plate. The next day, he hit the walk-off single to beat Tampa 6-5, before getting buckets of ice water thrown on him from teammates.
"Calm demeanor," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol wrote in a text. "Not phased [sic] by anything, and a gamer. The guys love him."
Randy Mazey -- who coached Wetherholt in his last year at the University of West Virginia, before Wetherholt was drafted and Mazey retired -- relished the replays of Wetherholt's home run, walk-off hit and toothy grin, as well as how the other Cardinals reacted to him. Mazey coached for decades and has seen the evolution and steady improvement in young players climbing through amateur baseball, so he's not at all surprised to see Wetherholt, as well as all the other rookies, excelling.
"The kids these days are so talented," Mazey said. "I think you're going to see more of that. This is going to start being a trend."
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...herhold-benge-mcgonigle-stewart-murakami
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