Best Young Players Major League Baseball Should Market
There is a lot of young talent coming up in the game that Major League Baseball can use to help market and grow the sport.
One of the best ways to grow any sport is to take some of the game’s most popular players and use them as advertising to their audience. Major League Baseball hasn’t always been great at doing that, but they are trying to do better.
With a sport where faces are easily seen and recognizable on the field, you would think Major League Baseball has no problems marketing their players. However, the sport still struggles with making their best players household names to the general public.
You look at what the NFL just did during the Super Bowl with their 100-year anniversary commercial. Many viewers thought that was the best commercial of the Super Bowl.
To be honest, as a casual NFL fan, I didn’t know who half those players were. But if Major League Baseball did something similar I probably would have felt the same way most NFL fans did about that commercial.
The sport has to do a better job of bringing their superstars together for the greater good of the sport. Especially at a time when MLB and the MLBPA seem to be butting heads, now more than ever they need to market the sport and let fans know it is in a good place.
We as baseball fans know just how great the game is, but the outside seems to be on a witch hunt to label the sport boring and dead.
It’s up to Major League Baseball and it’s players to change that narrative and let them know it’s alive and well by marketing its young superstars.
Alex Bregman
Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman already does a great job of promoting himself. Since helping the Astros win a World Series in 2017 he has been all over the place and has turned himself into one of the most recognizable faces in the sport.
He is a great follow on Twitter with almost 230,000 followers. And has over 66 thousand subscribers to his YouTube channel.
I know MLB used him in a commercial before the start of last season, but they should be looking for opportunities to showcase him even more.
He is a very likable guy that all fans can get behind and support, and those are exactly the players you need to promote for this game.
The second overall draft pick in 2015 has also been a very solid player making his first trip to the All-Star game in 2018 at 24-years-old.
last season he hit .286 with a league-high 51 doubles to go along with 31 home runs and 103 RBI, finishing fifth in the AL MVP vote.
This kid is quickly becoming a superstar and someone who the fans can get behind. If MLB wants this game to grow, it can do so on the back on someone like Alex Bregman who seems to relish being in the spotlight.
Francisco Lindor
He just barely makes the cut for this list as I’m looking for players 25 and younger, and Francisco Lindor will play the 2019 season at age 25.
The former eighth overall pick seems like he’s already a veteran in the game having played at least 158 games in three straight seasons now. He’s finished in the top 10 in MVP voting each of those three seasons with one Gold Glove and two Silver Slugger awards.
The past two seasons he’s hit 33 and 38 home runs respectively, and in 2018 he led the league with 129 runs scored.
So the credentials on the field are obviously there for Lindor, and he certainly has the personality that fans will love with that infectious smile.
Lindor has also been on the big stage having made the postseason in three straight seasons, including a trip to the World Series in 2016.
He has 177 thousand followers on Twitter, but I wouldn’t say he’s very active on social media posting just a couple of times a month.
The sport has already done a great job of promoting Lindor in several commercials. It was also huge to have him play a game in his home country of Puerto Rico. And then he was elevated to superstar status by hitting a home run in that game.
Lindor is already one of the most recognizable faces in the game, and while Major League Baseball already does a decent job of marketing him, fans can’t get enough Francisco Lindor.
Aaron Nola or Walker Buehler
There aren’t a lot of great, young starting pitchers out there who are 25 or younger, which is pretty sad for the sport.
I wanted to put Noah Syndergaard on this list as he is great on social media and plays in a large market in New York, but he’s 26. I think Major League Baseball is already aware of his popularity with the nickname Thor, and they do a great job of marketing him.
But the next generation of starting pitchers is not very bright. Aaron Nola is already 25 and doesn’t seem to be a polarizing figure, but he is about to become one of the best pitchers in the game.
Last year he finished third in the NL Cy Young voting with a 2.37 ERA in 212.1 innings pitched with 224 strikeouts.
If the Phillies sign Bryce Harper and become a relevant team, Nola is someone Major League Baseball could definitely market.
The reason I mention Walker Buehler is become he plays in a big market in Los Angeles and has already gained national exposure with his performance in last year’s Wild Card game.
But he’s also still a little unproven at the major league leve with just 146.2 innings pitched. He finished third in the NL Rookie of the year voting in 2018 with a 2.62 ERA and 151 strikeouts.
If he has another dominant year in 2019 and leads the Dodgers back to the postseason, he could be the starting pitcher that MLB chooses to brand going forward.
He already has 26,000 followers on Twitter, which is actually less than Nola’s 31.8 thousand.But, Buehler has 122,000 followers on Instagram.
Jose Berrios is another young starter who could be a polarizing figure if the Minnesota Twins ever become relevant.
Shohei Ohtani
It’s highly, highly unfortunate for Major League Baseball that Shohei Ohtani got injured last year or he may have already taken over this game.
The 24-year-old was quickly becoming a modern-day Babe Ruth with a 3.31 ERA through 10 starts with 63 strikeouts in 51.2 innings pitched, while hitting a home run nearly every time he was in the lineup.
He finished the second half of the year strictly as the team’s DH and he finished the season with a .285 average and 22 home runs while winning the AL Rookie of the Year award.
The dreaded Tommy John surgery will keep him from pitching again until the 2020 season when he’ll be 25.
There is no timetable right now for when Ohtani will be able to hit this year, but he’s not expected to be ready for Opening Day.
If he can follow up his offensive success while continuing to strengthen his arm, the hype surrounding him going into the 2020 season will be huge.
Unfortunately, Major League Baseball may have to put his campaign on hold until he can pitch again. His story isn’t quite as exciting if he’s just another hitter that hits 20-plus home runs as the league is rampent with those righ tnow.
But he can come back and have success on the mound and at the plate, he easily becomes the most polarizing figure in baseball.
Ronald Acuna Jr
As a Braves fan I’m very hesitant to write this for fear of jinxing anything, but the crown jewel of this list for Major League Baseball should be Ronald Acuna Jr.
I will try to temper expectations a bit and remind people that he has only played 111 games at the big league level, but man was he polarizing.
At the age of 20 he set the baseball world on fire last year by hitting .293 with 26 home runs and winning the NL Rookie of the Year.
He made history last season by homering in five straight games, including hitting a leadoff home run in three straight games. He became the youngest players since 1908 to homer in that many games consecutively.
His legacy became even larger when Jose Urena for the Marlins hit Acuna becasue he wanted to put an end to the streak.
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Major League Baseball has already taken notice of Acuna’s marketing ability to younger fans by including him in that Ken Griffey Jr. commercial during the playoffs telling fans to “let the kids play.”
Acuna plays with a lot of emotion, which could rub some old school baseball fans the wrong way, but it’s the perfect amount of enthusiasm that will draw in the young crowd.
Again, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we could be looking at the next Mike Trout, except Acuna actually enjoys the spotlight. He already had 47,000 followers on Twitter.
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If Acuna has another MVP-type season for the Atlanta Braves, Major League Baseball would be wise to market this kid any way possible.