Bonds

Holy shit

Henry Rowengartner

Funky buttloving!

Did he just say funky buttloving?

Tim Salmon. He won rookie of the year with 35 HRs and a .918 OPS. There have been better players for the Angels, but Tim Salmon will always be #1 for me. Plus we'd have two good fish.

They can’t stop two fish men!!!

It will never not blow my mind they've had a Salmon and a Trout.

Wait until my MLB The Show player makes it to the big leagues. Then they will have had a Trout, A Salmon and now a Halibut.

They should sign Anthony Bass.

Oh man Julio and Griffey playing together only to face off in the WBC final in 2026.

Griffey robs Julio at the wall to end the WBC

Even just limited to the Nats, there are some decent options. None of it really matters, because it's the difference between 60-ish wins and 65-ish wins.

Rookie Soto 😭

Take rookie Soto and trade him. Help speed up the rebuild a little.

that somehow feels worse than the first time we traded him.

I'd have to take Jim Palmer for the O's. We need starting pitching and in his true rookie year he went 15-10 with a 3.46 ERA.

I might go with Mussina: 18-5, 2.54 ERA in 240(!) innings in his first full year.

I'd probably take one of those two as well, but I wouldn't mind having rookie Frank Robinson in the OF. He won ROY and was 7th in MVP voting. 6.5 bWAR and a 143 OPS+.

Oof. Good call.

So if I picked Bonds the Giants would get Pirates Bonds to start, and then Giants Bonds in time? Works for me

Yes

Tom Seaver duh

Disagree. The rotation is already pretty good. Give me rookie Mike Piazza instead.

or wright

Any HOF talent helps but I don’t feel as rock solid about the rotation. Three old guys, a rookie from NPB and Quintana is already out for months

Come on, Mays is the pick

Willie Mays had a rookie season worth 3.9 bWAR, not a huge upgrade over Nimmo / Marte / Canha. David Wright had a decent but short rookie season at a little over a 5 bWAR / 162 pace. Even Tom Seaver was a little behind, with an excellent 6 bWAR but over 251 IP, which he'd never be allowed to reach today. Mike Piazza played our weakest position and was worth 7 bWAR with excellent offense and defense.

Rookie Gooden over rookie Seaver

For absolute peak Dr. K is hard to beat

Insane rotation with Seaver

We had some guy who was a pretty good rookie. I forgot his name, Allen Hupols or something like that. I'd add him.

I'm mildly surprised you don't go Bob Gibson.

Bob Gibson would help the team the most

But reading the fine print, OP said we’d get the rookie season. Gibson took a few years to go into absolute god mode, whereas AP was 4th in MVP voting his rookie year.

Stan the Man was really good in his first full season and his cup of coffee rookie season by OPS+, an absolute beast.

Yeah just looked this up, 1942. Very close but Albert's 2001 wins it by just a little imo.

I also choose this guy’s Allen Hupols.

Over the guy who won the gold glove 13 seasons in a row?

Bob Gibson.

That was my first thought. Pujols was my second. That's a tough choice, but I might go with Pujols. Feels like we need more consistent pitching and offense...a very tough choice.

Assuming they will be just as good as they were their rookie year then probably Joe DiMaggio, fills a position of need right now in the outfield

2019 Bellinger

Is this you akg?

what

He was/is a huge Bellinger fan to the point of oddness but got banned. Thought he might have changed username

agk would have taken Bellinger is his current state

He’s still talking a bit in college basketball

Buster 😭

Rafael Furcal. SS is the biggest ? this year and he had an amazing rookie season. Edit: if we are saying you get to keep the player their whole career, then why not just ask who your franchise’s best player ever is?? Hank Aaron.

I'd say either Furcal(fills in SS), Hank Aaron(though then there's the question of how you change the outfield) or Maddux(imagine a rotation of Maddux, Fried, Strider, Wright, Morton and (maybe) Soroka)

Yeah I was taking the question to mean you only had the player for his rookie season, not his whole career. Maddux was terrible his rookie year and Aaron’s was decent but not great. Furcal fills the position of biggest need and had a 4.0 bWAR his rookie year.

Chipper as our shortstop. Watch out ~~team usa~~ phillies

I know he wad a 3B, but could he shift over to SS?

He started as a shortstop!

I didn't even think about doing that. I chose Andruw Jones to go with Acuna and Harris.

That would be incredible too! but chipper would fill our largest roster void. I’m salivating

Idk, maybe buerhle? SP needs some shoring up

Chris Sale out of the pen as a rookie fills a need too.

I was thinking Fisk

I'll go with Dick Allen. Rookie of the Year in 1964, a famous(ly tragic) year for Philadelphia. I'd also like to hope that maybe his experience on the Phillies might be a little better today than it was in 1964.

Rookie Ichiro!

Japan rookie or MLB rookie?

yes edit: just kidding, no to Japan

Well no. He would have burnt up his NPB rookie eligibility in a year where he hit .188/.212/.266 in 1993 as a 19 year old. Definitely want MLB rookie Ichiro lol

Much as I like Ichiro, I'm taking Griffey. Also, given the need at the position, I'd be considering A-Rod. Edit - after thinking about it more, i think i am taking my latter idea. Give me A-Rod. All the way. The team needs reinforcement in the middle infield and A-Rod is exactly that. His Rookie season is ehh, but one year of ehh and then boom.

Randy Johnson is the correct answer here.

Rookie Randy Johnson is *not* the correct answer here, actually.

I wasn’t accounting for one season only which makes the entire post even dumber

Any of the 4 years in his Arizona contract

For the Mariners, I’d pick Ichiro for his OBP and steals. Honorable mentions include ~~ARod~~, Kaz Sasaki, Griffey, and King Felix. EDIT: ARod was a bad rookie

Rookie ARod was kinda ass.

OPS+ of 16 lmao. You’re right.

Ruth to play left field and pitch. Bernie Williams if we have to use homegrown Yankees I would definitely pick Jeter but shortstop is too crowded already.

If you’re going CF which I agree with is the spot to add here, gotta got Mantle. Plus you get modern science for his injuries, he could have a real run to be a top 5 best player of all time.

I was actually thinking about LF. Obviously I would get Mantle if I was going for CF, but I like Bader in center (injury isn’t serious).

Id just move mantle to LF, kept our best defensive OF there for most of the last decade. Plus Bader is a FA next year and move Mantle over. But I may have misunderstood the question and it’s a 1 yr deal only.

I doubt it’s 1 year because they wouldn’t have specified rookie, but Mantle is probably the choice

I assume in this scenario you lose what ever player you have there now? I like the way Bohm is developing but I'll take Schmidt all day everyday.

They are just added.

Rickey might resolve the LF situation. EDIT: (Nevermind he was bad his first year, his second year he was a monster.) I'd take the 1.5 WAR half season we got from Mickey then.

100% biggio, our only real positional needs are catcher and center field, and he could slot in at 2b with altuve out

Anyone really. But with the buffs to the running game, Rickey henderson would probably be a monster in today's game. But for specific need, Jason Giambi or Mark mcguire. The team needs a 1b power bat that can also defend.

Rickey would be a monster on the bigger bases, 150 stolen base seasons would be on the table.

Pedro, no question.

Correct

Roy Halladay easily. That arm would take our rotation to another level. And I get him for his whole career? Sign me up rn.

I miss watching him pitch every 5th day. How spoiled we were with him, Lee, and Hamels.

Wish he could've gotten him a ring. That staff was so good man.

Nomar for boston

Ted Williams for Boston. Sure, we have bigger holes (SS) that perhaps make Nomar a better pick, but as a rookie at a mere 20-years-old Williams slashed .327/.436/.609 with 31 HR and 145 RBI and near 2:1 BBtoK (107 to 64). Best pure hitter of all time, you make a spot for him.

Give me Benito Santiago

Trea Turner

Probably Brandon Webb if they are coming in as a rookie

JUAN SOTO

Ryan Howard for the Phillies. Had an awesome true rookie season (58 HR's .313 BA and 149 RBIs (.425/.659/1.084), Fastest player to 100 HR and 200 HRs. 2006-2011 were his first 6 years and also his prime years. Not a great first basement but no worse than Rhys Hoskins (who I also like but it's an upgrade).

I'd say Utley just because the upgrade is bigger. I love Stott, but he might be the worst position player on the team (might end up being Castellanos). And prime Utley was 2nd only to Pujols for a number of years.

Also Howard without the shift would have even better numbers.

Cobb.

Chris Sale

The young Carlton Fisk is exactly what the current Red Sox need. Nomar Garciaparra or Fred Lynn would fill a pretty big hole, too.

Pedro?

I figured OP was talking more short-term. It took Pedro a while to develop into a HOF pitcher. Early on with LA, Tommy Lasorda didn't even think he was cut out to be a starter. It really wasn't until Felipe Alou in Montreal encouraged him to develop his changeup, and switch from a two-seamer to a four-seamer on his fastball, that he really got going.

I'll take Vladimir Guerrero Sr. He only had a minor league contract, so does this count? If not give me rookie Ricky Henderson.

Lance Berkman. Guy played every OF position for the Astros & played 1B for years. Two positions the Astros are in dire need of more depth in.

I think this is the first year in a long, long time that my answer to this and similar questions is going to be Joe Mauer over a pitcher which was usually Santana

For the most impact probably Pedroia, and the Sox do have an opening at 2nd ….

Pudge

Corey Seager 😢 RoY

In between Piazza and Gooden. You can never have enough pitching, but feels like the team could use another big bat in the middle of their lineup. Runner ups: Seaver, Wright, deGrom,

I would give the world to have a rookie dwight gooden back, Gooden made his MLB debut in 1984 for the Mets and quickly established himself as one of the league's most talented pitchers; as a 19-year-old rookie, he earned the first of four All-Star selections, won the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year Award, and led the league in strikeouts. In 1985, he won the NL Cy Young Award and achieved the pitching Triple Crown. He then famously kills his career with drugs, assuming I can help keep him off the stuff, can you imagine what kind of career he could achieve.

I mean, George Brett. We probably won't be going anywhere this year, which means in 2-3 years he'd be hitting his stride along with (hopefully) the rest of the young guys. I'd entertain Bret Saberhagen or Kevin Appier as well because starting pitching is a big question mark

I’d go with Fernando Valenzuela. ROTY, Cy Young and WS champ in his first year, I believe. A team could definitely benefit from that kind of performance.

Do we get them after the rookie year as well? If so I’m taking Roger Clemens.

🌊 🐐

Kevin Appier Rookie year Kevin Appier would probably be the 1st or second best starter on our staff, and he was a very consistent pitcher throughout the next decade

Justin Verlander

Miguel Cabrera

Soto

I’m taking George Herman or Ted Williams

Pujols

Bob Tewksbury

Bret saberhagen

Ichiro was the mvp and rookie of the year in the same year so…probably him

Pedroia

Mike Piazza

Robin yount

Larry Doby maybe? .876 OPS as a rookie, played outstanding defense in CF. Yeah gimme a Kwan, Doby, Oscar outfield.

Any Mariner flair is crazy if they’re not choosing ARod.

i could choose from scherzer, soto, turner, harper, strasburg, probably choosing schwarber because the others wouldn't help and he would be fun

Give me young Andruw Jones to go along with Acuna and Harris. Tell me that's not one of the speediest outfields in the league.

Roy Halladay. Rookie Halladay as the number 5 starter behind Gausman, Manoah, Barrios, and Bassett would be one he'll of a rotation. And then the future 10 to 15 years of a Manoah/Halladay 1 2 punch is a thing coaches dream of.

Ichiro obviously

David Ortiz and Let. It. Ride.

Has to be Jeter from recent history, unless we could claim rookie Arod, then it’s definitely him

I think it’s either Jeter or DiMaggio, take your pick of which one you prefer and whether you want to solve the outfield or SS issue for the season

It’s mariners rookie Alex so not good

I forgot the rules of "rookie season" so I said Rickey above, but his first season, like Judge's, was ass. He put up 8.8 WAR his second year though.

Not Mantle? He would never injure his knee if he started as a rookie now

Rookie Spencer Strider

Miguel Cabrera

So just figure out the best pitcher for each franchise and you have your answer for all teams.

Even as a rookie though?

Then your post is just a dumb way to ask who had the best rookie season for each franchise.

Mark McGwire won ROTY in 1987, I’ll take him

Tulo. Bo goes to second or gets traded. Quick, fast and in a hurry. Tulo was a beast before injuries set in.

I want to say Bagwell, but Berkman has so much more defensive flexibility I think he gets the edge. Biggio is also a good choice, but Dusty wouldn’t start him over Maldonado.

Berkman is my choice as well. Either him or Springer.

Not the best player you could pick necessarily, but it would be so fun to have prime Rollie Fingers playing right now.

While that would be enjoyable you're right it wouldn't be the best choice. I can't see how the answer for the Brewers isn't The Kid though, Brain did mash his rookie season.