3 Potential breakout candidates for the Rockies in 2024

With a year focused on development and some of the young players, we look to see progress from certain players. These players will go on to hopefully become contributors for a franchise that will hope to contend starting in a few years. With the young players focused on developing, you are bound to have a player or two occasionally break out and become more than just a regular for a contending team, but maybe they become an all-star level player, or even potential superstar (Nolan Jones).

With the season underway, and the Rockies getting steam-rolled in the opening series against the Diamondbacks, the season already seems pretty bleak. Though it was a rough weekend, there were some positives, both offensively and on the pitching side of the ball. We saw some big positives from veterans and youngsters alike and today we are going to take a look at 3 Rockies players that will break out in 2024.

The Gold Glover will have his offense match the defense in 2024

I am all aboard the Brenton Doyle hype train this year. It seems almost inevitable that he will break out and become a very good all-around centerfielder this year. Already an elite defensive player, the offense will certainly take some steps forward, becoming one of the more polished centerfielders that can truly change a game.

Let me qualify that by saying, he isn't going to be on the Nolan Jones level, but he is going to be a very exciting and good player to watch. He is the best defensive outfielder in the game of baseball, and if his offense takes some steps forward (and early signs are positive here), we could be looking at a three-to-four fWAR type player.

See some of the early highlights from Doyle's 2023 season, thanks to Highlight King

Doyle made some significant changes to his hands during his swing late in the year, last year and the results were almost instant. After the change, he compiled 24 hits (11 of them for extra bases) in the last 26 games. During that month he hit .261 with a .467 slugging percentage. His strikeout rate was down to 27.8% and though that's still high, its lower than the 2023 total as a whole, which was (XX). If Doyle can continue that average and increase the on-base percentage a little bit to where he is around .260 with a .310 on-base percentage, paired with his speed, we could be looking at an easy 30 steals with a strong table-setting type of player at the top of Rockies lineup.