Carroll crushes 463-foot homer, reaches base 6 times

August 26th, 2022

Though baseballs are known to travel quite far in the Pacific Coast League, probably didn’t need any extra help on his 24th homer of the year.

MLB’s No. 3 overall prospect demolished a 463-foot moonblast that sailed far over the heads of fans on the berm at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, landing beyond the trees for Carroll’s seventh dinger at Triple-A. The ball was scorched 112.2 mph off the bat.

The lefty slugger took the first two pitches outside from starter Tristan Beck, and the right-hander made the mistake of grooving a get-me-over fastball to one of baseball’s most tooled-out prospects. On just the third pitch of the game, the D-backs’ No. 1 prospect gave Reno an early 1-0 lead.

In addition to flexing his power, the 22-year-old put his advanced approach at the plate on full display by reaching base in all six of his plate appearances. He drew four walks, smacked a double, drove in three runs (one on a bases-loaded free pass) and scored twice in the Aces’ 13-4 victory.

Power is actually his lowest graded tool at 50, but to be fair, he’s never had a full season to truly show it off. Carroll played just seven games in 2021 before shoulder surgery ended his campaign, and he had only slugged two long balls in 42 games when he debuted in 2019.

The 16th overall pick of the 2019 Draft has seen his stock skyrocket after a prolific first full season, slashing .306/.426/.570 with 17 extra-base hits and 22 RBIs in 31 games since joining the Aces to complement a .310/.424/.611 line in 91 games across three levels, including two rehab games at the Rookie level. His 24 homers, .624 slugging percentage and 1.056 OPS lead all D-backs ranked prospects.