Major League Baseball at its best is a game of superstars. In an era where every night is an open competition for viewers, the sport thrives on big names like Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Elly De La Cruz achieving jaw-dropping feats of athleticism and creating memorable moments.
But over a 162-game MLB season, there's no way those superstars can carry a team to success all by themselves. Look at what poor Mike Trout has had to deal with his entire career, now relegated to going through injury after injury on a non-competitive team. Any good team has to have its role players and there's nothing that gives a team more of a lift than a surprise contribution from an unexpected source.
That's right, it's time to talk about some of the smallest names making the biggest impacts in 2024. We'll have fun shouting out some players who don't typically get a ton of shine and who knows, maybe they'll all gain some fans along the way. Here are five truly under-the-radar players making a huge difference for their MLB teams in 2024:
Willi Castro, Twins UTIL
What if we told you there was a shortstop playing on a 2023 playoff team making just $3.3 million this season who thus far has the tenth-most fWAR at the position, more than Francisco Lindor or Corey Seager? That's right, the Minnesota Twins' Willi Castro is making his presence known at Target Field this season.
Coming into the season, the word on the Twins was that the roster had a chance to be special, but only if Royce Lewis, Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton stayed healthy. Well, it's May 1 and the three are already hurt, as Buxton joined the injury brigade Wednesday with Correa and Lewis long gone already to IL stints. And Castro, who was already filling in for Correa at shortstop, immediately went out to center field to take Buxton's spot.
Castro's .789 OPS, while not eye-popping, is well above league average for a shortstop, even if it looks a tiny bit fluky based on strikeout and hard hit rates. And since Castro is in the 94th percentile of outs above average, the Twins aren't even losing much defensively with Correa gone. Injuries to stars hurt no matter what, but what gets teams through an MLB season without crumbling is having someone like Castro to step up in their moment of need.
Connor Joe, Pirates OF/1B
Right field in Major League Baseball has become a position where the superstars go. For years it was occupied by Mookie Betts, Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge and somehow all three have now left, to be replaced by Ronald Acuña Jr., Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker. But the Pittsburgh Pirates have a player who moonlights as a half-right fielder, half-first baseman who's holding his own with all those big names.
Connor Joe, a 31-year-old journeyman with under four career WAR, has come out of nowhere to crush baseballs in 2024. He's been almost a perfectly average bat throughout his career, but is 44% better than average this season by OPS+. He leads all qualified Pirates hitters with a .283 AVG and .832 OPS. Not bad for a guy making $2.1 million this season.
Though the Pirates have been a massive MLB disappointment of late, once again falling apart after a hot start, they're lucky to have Joe around to help weather the storm. With a number of young talents trying to find their way as big leaguers, it pays to have a veteran like Joe who can accept any assignment or amount of playing time without complaint and who understands exactly who he is as a hitter. That only helps those younger bats figure out their own identities through watching Joe go about his business.
Connor Wong, Red Sox C
Wow, this article is running heavy on Connors, huh? Connor Wong had flashed some decent potential in 2022 and 2023, but he still seemed destined to be remembered only as the last remaining Red Sox player acquired in the Mookie Betts trade. Then out of the blue in 2024, he decided to start hitting for power.
With five home runs, 14 RBI and a 1.007 OPS through 21 games, Wong is finding himself at the plate in his age-28 season. Though he's not hitting the ball hard as consistently as the game's true power threats, he's hitting more fly balls and line drives than he ever has, and in Major League Baseball, those are the batted ball outcomes you want.
And with the amount of injuries the Red Sox have sustained as a team, it's a huge lift to have the catcher, usually thought of as a defense-first player, make an impact at the plate. He's also had some of the team's biggest hits of the season already, including a two-homer game in Cleveland and an eighth-inning pinch-hit home run to tie the game against Baltimore.
Tyler Nevin, Athletics 3B
Not only were no Oakland Athletics players expected to appear on standout lists this season, but Tyler Nevin wasn't even supposed to be on the Oakland Athletics. Nevin spent the spring trying to earn a spot on the Baltimore Orioles, but was one of the team's final roster cuts before Opening Day. The A's picked him up off waivers and the rest, as the saying goes, is MLB history.
Nevin leads all qualified Oakland hitters with an .875 OPS, has 40 total bases, second-most on the team, and has found his power stroke of late, including hitting a home run in the series finale Sunday agains the very same team that cut him, the Orioles. With the A's finishing off a sweep of the Pirates Wednesday, Nevin is officially the hottest hitter on the hottest team in the American League.
Much like other players on this list, there are obvious flaws in Nevin's game that suggest he can't keep his value up enough to be in All-Star consideration–namely poor defense and low on-base potential–and that's completely alright. Nevin is seizing his hot streak while he can and helping the A's shock the world and those are the kinds of individual chapters that make every baseball season a beautiful story.
DJ Stewart, Mets OF/DH
New York Mets fans have fallen in love with DJ Stewart and it's time the rest of the baseball world does, too. Once a first-round pick of the Orioles, Stewart never fully broke through as a big leaguer and spent most of his career bouncing from AAA to the majors, until the Mets called him up for good at age 29 last July.
Since that callup, Stewart has an .843 OPS, with 15 home runs in just 79 games. Tuesday night, he showed his clutch gene with a monster three-run homer to seal a Mets win against the Chicago Cubs, the only game they would win of the first three matchups. With stars like Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo struggling at the plate to begin this season, it's been Stewart picking up some of the slack to help the Mets stay around .500.
And alas, as is often the case in the MLB, the Mets are already in the process of replacing Stewart with more expensive talent, as J.D. Martinez has come up to the roster after beginning the season on a rehab assignment. His name is the same two initials as Stewart's, but reversed, so that's a cruel twist of fate. But Stewart knows that in this game, your name is usually called once again. He'll be ready whenever the Mets need him, in whatever role they require.
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