Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo tries to leave the back of the team plane to the players, so that they can have their own time and space. But on a flight during the 2023 season, one of his coaches told him there was something pretty interesting going on back there.
When Lovullo ventured to the back, he was astonished by what he saw: There was Corbin Carroll, at the time in the midst of his dazzling National League Rookie of the Year campaign, sitting criss-cross applesauce in the aisle with newly promoted No. 1 prospect Jordan Lawlar, playing cards.
It wasn’t blackjack or gin rummy. The two young players were trading baseball cards.
Lovullo watched Carroll do amazing things on the baseball field that season. But that’s the memory he promised to lock in for the rest of his life.
“He’s not only a great player but a real fan of the game,” Lovullo says of Carroll. “He loves and respects the history of the game, he’s a card collector, and he wants to appreciate the great players around him.”
The back of Corbin Carroll’s baseball card is shaping up to look pretty good right now.
Though Carroll is listed nine inches shorter and nearly 120 pounds lighter than Aaron Judge, there he was, midweek, just on the heels of Judge and known dinger dealers Kyle Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani on the MLB home run leaderboard, with 14. Carroll is already more than halfway to his home run total from that 2023 rookie run (25).
That’s impressive stuff from the 5-foot-10, 165-pound Carroll.
But there’s so much more to his game than slugging.
There is also speed and defense, intellect and intensity. At 24 years old, Carroll is a complete player having a sensational season that could put him firmly in the mix for the National League MVP.
“He's a game changer,” teammate Brandon Pfaadt said recently, “and hopefully he keeps doing this thing.”
Carroll’s power might be surprising, given his small stature. But to know his story is to know there’s nothing he can’t do on the baseball field.
He was born to a mother, Pey-Lin, who immigrated from Taiwan and who would often throw batting practice to him. He is said to have gotten his feisty competitiveness from his mother and his high-level ability to process information from his father, Brant, an eye surgeon.
After putting a talent for soccer to the side upon the advice of his youth baseball coach -- two-time MLB All-Star Jeff Cirillo -- Carroll entered high school at the private Lakeside School in Seattle at just 5-foot-6, 130 pounds. As a freshman, he not only starred for the Lions in center field, but also pitched for them in the 3A State Final, which they reached for the first time in school history thanks to his stellar season.
Lakeside School is known more for its academics than its athletics. Heck, Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen graduated from there in the early 1970s. But in Carroll, Lakeside had a bona fide baseball star, one of the best prep players ever to emerge from the Pacific Northwest. He committed to UCLA as a sophomore, but when he became MVP of the Area Code Games and the All-American Game, professional scouts were salivating.
Carroll caught the attention of even casual fans, too, when a video of one of his high school homers went viral. In the clip, he is seen attempting to call timeout at the plate, but the ump doesn’t honor it, and the opposing pitcher tries to quick pitch him. Forced to think fast, Carroll simply swings at the pitch and belts it to the berm beyond the right field wall.
Needless to say, Carroll never made it to UCLA. Instead, the D-backs drafted him 16th overall in the 2019 Draft. Even as he navigated a shoulder surgery and a season lost to the pandemic during his Minor League career, his super speed, advanced approach and improving power made him one of the most exciting prospects in the sport.
Carroll also made the most of the down time during his shoulder recovery in 2021. While rehabbing in Arizona, he decided to take in just about every Diamondbacks home game at Chase Field from the scout’s section behind home plate. There, he sat with the club’s advance scout, Jeff Gardner, and saw the game from a different perspective.
“No one, I don’t even think, suggested to him to do that, we didn’t give him that idea,” general manager Mike Hazen says. “He just decided that’s what he was going to do. That’s not normal.”
The following year, a newly healthy Carroll put those lessons to use. He soared through three Minor League levels in 2022 before making his big league debut in late August of that year. And in his first full season, in 2023, Carroll, newly inked to an eight-year, $111 million extension, electrified the baseball world and turned the playoff order on its head.
In the regular season, he became the first rookie in MLB history to swat at least 20 homers with at least 50 steals. He also became the first player of any experience level to have 10 or more triples, 25 or more doubles, 25 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a single season.
That made Carroll a lock for NL Rookie of the Year -- an honor he claimed unanimously to become the first player of Asian-American descent to win the award.
But Carroll was also productive in the postseason, as the D-backs went on an epic and completely unexpected run to the NL pennant. He doubled and homered in the two-game sweep of the Brewers in the Wild Card Series, had three hits, a homer and two steals in the surprise sweep of the rival Dodgers in the Division Series and went 3-for-4 with two runs, two steals and two RBIs in the NLCS Game 7 clincher over the Phillies.
Carroll’s rookie season was a smashing success.
But it’s actually failure that has brought out his best.
The failure came in 2024, when, for much of the season and for the first time in his baseball life, Carroll looked overmatched. With a .212 average and .635 OPS in the first half, he was not a repeat All-Star. Instead, he began to doubt his abilities, taking hundreds of swings before games and trying all manner of tees, bat sizes and mechanical adjustments to find a fix that wouldn’t come.
“We were all frustrated for him when he was going through it,” Hazen says. “Everyone knows how talented he was. We saw it in 2023. You can’t fluke something for seven months at this level. But he was in a tough spot, and it’s hard for other people to explain to you what struggle is like. Everyone knew he was going to figure it out. It was a matter of when, not if.”
It was not until the last two months of the season, when Carroll learned to not let the negative thoughts spiral, that he got his groove back. In his final 53 games of the season in August and September, he banged out 14 homers, 15 steals and a .918 OPS to put a respectable finish to a frustrating season. And here in 2025, he has taken the lessons learned from last year and applied them to one of the best starts in all of MLB.
Those who know Carroll best rave about his intellect and adaptability as much as the raw talents we see on the field. Lovullo calls Carroll a “mad scientist,” putting together the perfect concoction of information and preparation every day to craft the best version of himself.
Carroll is the type of athlete who probably would have found a way to excel in whatever his chosen field. But he chose the baseball field and has provided a blend of power and speed the game has rarely seen before.
Despite his small size, Carroll’s power has surged this season, maximizing the potential of his efficient swing, grip strength and strong forearms. He’s in the upper echelon in MLB in bat speed and hard-hit and barrel percentages. And he is the only player in MLB in the top 3% of the league in both expected slugging percentage and sprint speed.
That his extra bases and stolen bases also come with one of the highest outs above average totals of any right fielder over the last three seasons only adds to his allure.
Carroll is the Diamondbacks dynamo -- signed for the long haul, brandishing the long ball and standing much taller than his height can measure.
But maybe the best thing about him is that he’s as much a baseball fan as you and me. He’s got the cards to prove it. And his own card is becoming more valuable by the day.