Coming into the year, Didier Fuentes was mostly on potential breakout prospect lists, appearing near the back of a top ten or two, but he wasn't terribly well-known nationally. By the end of the year, he had made it through three minor league levels and made his major league debut. Those four big league appearances ... didn't go very well. But did I tell you that he just turned 20 in June?
Eldridge, 20, hadn't been rewarded for the hard contact he made in his first three games in the majors. In his third career plate appearance, he smashed a 409-foot, 105.9-mph line drive that got caught. During the first game of this series, his 102.4 mph line drive found a glove. In his 11th plate appearance, Eldridge finally earned a batting average.
Rosters expand in September, allowing teams to call up players, some of whom will be getting their first taste of Major League action. Recently, MLB.com listed the best September call ups in each teams history and for the Blue Jays they landed on a player who would go on to have a Hall of Fame career. It was only a two-game appearance at the end of 1998, but it was two-games that showcased the flashes of greatness that was to come for the late-great, Roy Halladay.
Brown was a third-round pick out of Indiana in 2021. Colorado left him exposed in last winter's Rule 5 draft, where he went unprotected. The 6'6″ righty has had a breakout minor league season that might've garnered him legitimate consideration in the upcoming Rule 5. Colorado was going to add him to the 40-man roster at the beginning of the winter regardless. They'll select his contract a couple months earlier to evaluate him over six or seven starts down the stretch.