Getty Image / Kevin Abele
The official opening day of the 2024 Major League Baseball season is upon us. Fans of all 30 big league ballclubs have something to get excited about heading into the season.
For Milwaukee Brewers fans, much of the excitement revolves around rookie outfielder Jackson Chourio. Chourio, one of the game’s best prospects, will start the season with the Brew Crew on Friday against the Mets after Thursday’s opener was postponed.
Just how good is Jackson Chourio? Last November, the Brewers gave him an eight-year, $82 million extension before he ever took a big league at-bat, the largest such contract for a player that had come through the minors in history. He dominated AA ball at 19 last year before finishing the year in AAA. Overall, he finished the year in the minors with an OPS up over .800. That’s incredibly impressive for a 19-year-old kid playing against guys much older on average who has potentially great defense at a premium position in center field.
In 62 at-bats in Spring Training, Chourio had a .776 OPS and an impressive .323 average at the dish. That made it pretty much impossible for the Brewers to keep Chourio in the minors. MLB.com currently has him as the sport’s second-best prospect, behind Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holiday.
It’s not rare to see prospects make the opening-day roster straight out of Spring Training. But, it is incredibly rare for someone like Jackson Chourio, who just turned 20 two weeks ago, to make the roster outright. Just how rare? Only three different players have started on opening day at a younger age than Jackson Churio will be on opening day.
at 20 years & 18 days on Fri, Jackson Chourio will be the 5th-youngest player to start on Opening Day in the divisional era (1969), older than only:
1974 Robin Yount: 18 y, 201 d
1989 Ken Griffey Jr: 19 y, 133 d
1975 Robin Yount: 19 y, 204 d
1999 Adrian Beltre: 19 y, 363 d— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) March 27, 2024
Yount and Griffey are in the Hall of Fame, and Beltre will be enshrined this summer after being overwhelmingly elected on his first ballot.
The odds that Chourio lives up to those lofty standards aren’t great. Frankly, few baseball players in history have been as good as those three. But, if he can approach the career that Robin Yount, a Brewers team legend, had, I think Milwaukee fans will be more than thrilled.