In an era of baseball riddled with young talent, some players stand out among the rest. Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, for a couple examples, are two of the very best players in the game, have been for a few years now, and still have less than 50 years between the two of them.
But even at their young age, they’ve been around for a while.
The emerging (or rather, most recent) group of young stars to take MLB by storm, is headlined by names like Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor, Corey Seager, Xander Bogaerts and Nolan Arendado, but I certainly left out an important name there, didn’t I?
Manny Machado is perhaps the single best young player, after Trout and Harper, and, although he debuted back in 2012, it wasn’t really until last year, that he found the elite offensive and defensive consistency we’ve come to expect of him.
Just last night, for example, Machado hit three (3!) home runs against the Chicago White Sox, raising his season total up to 25. Watch them all below and observe in awe, his relative greatness:
If you’re keeping track, that’s three at-bats, three home runs, and seven RBI for Manny Machado yesterday. For the season, Machado is slashing a cool .307/.366/.557 with 25 home runs and 32 doubles. His 5.2 WAR is good for fifth best in baseball, and he’ll likely be a candidate for AL MVP when all is said and done.
He’s an absolute beast and yesterday was just the latest display of his abilities.