2 Winners and 2 Losers from the first month of Rockies baseball

Winner: Brenton Doyle is better than anyone expected this year

One of the most talked about breakout candidates for the Rockies in the 2024 season was Brenton Doyle. Some significant swing changes at the end of last year led to a lot of results offensively and has him looking like one of the better all-around centerfielders in baseball.

Those swing changes, I just referenced, led Doyle to hitting .261 with a .477 slugging percentage in the month of September last year. He looked very comfortable at the plate and looked to carry things over into 2024, and what we got, was way more than that month of September.

Looking at what Doyle has done this year, and it is not at all an exaggeration to say he has performed as one of the best centerfielders in the game so far; the stats back it up!

Doyle's defense isn't the only aspect carrying the centerfielders value; the 25-year-old has put up .8 fWAR (in just 27 games played (that's a 4.8 fWAR season over 162 games). That ties him with Aaron Judge and well as puts him ahead of guys like Julio Rodriguez, Cody Bellinger, Corbin Carroll, and Michael Harris II, that is super impressive. Doyle also ranks tied for fifth (with Michael Harris II) in wRC+ with a 129. This puts him in the All-Star game and if he continues, it puts him in the MVP conversation.

Perhaps the most impressive part of Doyle's offensive growth this year is the improvement we have seen on his ability to limit strikeouts, while maximizing power output. Now, Doyle won't ever be a 30-home run type hitter, but he will hit a lot of extra base hits, especially with his speed. He currently has a slugging percentage of .505 which puts him third in all of baseball. He has also cut his strikeout rate down to 29.2% which is a very respectable rate considering everything else he is doing. Doyle is truly playing like the best player the Rockies have and could be looking at a Nolan Jones type of breakout season.