Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll played his 500th career game on Wednesday, and the numbers he has produced over his first half-grand stands up to many of the game’s all-time greats.
FOX Sports put a graphic on TV screens across the country during Saturday’s game between the D-backs and Atlanta Braves. It showed Carroll on the right alongside Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio, as these are the only four players in MLB history with 80-plus home runs and 40-plus triples in their first 500 games.
There are a bunch of clubs like this with Carroll involved, particularly those with stolen bases and triples.
chat is this good? pic.twitter.com/9Pjy2Bf68e
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 5, 2026
Carroll has hit 84 home runs with 46 triples and 124 stolen bases as a two-time All-Star at 25 years old.
“I look up at the the big board when we’re home and I see his name being compared to guys like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays and that’s where I have to take a step back and realize that we’re in the presence of somebody that’s very special,” manager Torey Lovullo told D-backs TV reporter Jody Jackson on Wednesday. “But he doesn’t sit still. He doesn’t ever feel like he has it figured out and he’s constantly working.”
Carroll was good pretty much right away once he made his MLB debut at 22 years old, hitting four home runs with two triples in 32 games in 2022 before his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2023.
Even in 2024, a season in which he struggled so strikingly to get anything going in the first half, he finished with 22 home runs, a league-leading 14 triples and 35 stolen bases. He was right back on MVP ballots in 2025, finishing seventh after producing the first 30-home run, 30-steal season in D-backs history.
Carroll capped his first 500 games with two doubles and a triple in a win over the New York Mets on Wednesday, a sliding catch away from a four-hit game.
About those statistical clubs:
Corbin Carroll 500 games in, by the numbers
80-40-120 club
Let’s start with a Corbin Carroll exclusive.
Carroll is the only player in MLB history with at least 80 home runs, 120 steals and 40 triples through 500 games played.
Mays is not in the club. Neither is Mantle or Babe Ruth.
Barry Bonds didn’t do it. Alex Rodriguez, no. Not Ken Griffey Jr. or Mike Trout, either.
Corbin Carroll was FLYING around the bases on this triple! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/uVbhT8O2e4
— MLB (@MLB) March 31, 2026
80-40-50 club
What about knocking the stolen bases to 50? Then the club has two members with Carroll and Mays, the latter of whom was a 24-time All-Star and two-time MVP.
Mays has Carroll beat easily in home runs (121) and was close in triples (41) but not steals (55).
DiMaggio was right on par with Carroll with 46 triples along with 120 home runs, but his 15 steals don’t come close. Same deal with Gehrig, who hit 95 home runs and 52 triples but with only 23 steals.
Bonds, the all-time home runs leader, hit 79 home runs with 102 steals and 21 triples in his first 500 games. Henry Aaron hit 90 home runs with 33 triples but with only eight steals.
Mantle hit the same number of home runs (84) as Carroll but with 26 triples and 23 steals.
Stolen base numbers league-wide dropped in the 1930s and did not tick back up until the 1960s. Triples were more abundant before the 1930s, while home runs have been way more relevant in the past 30 years.
How about the stars of Carroll’s generation?
Trout hit 101 home runs and stole 103 bases with 26 triples in his first 500 games.
Bobby Witt Jr., a current major league marvel, hit 84 home runs and stole 119 bags but only collected 28 triples.
46 triples, 120 to go
Carroll zooming around second base at Chase Field with the crowd getting louder with each step he takes toward third is his signature play.
The great Roberto Clemente is the all-time leader in triples since the integration era of MLB began (1947). He hit 32 triples in his first 500 games and 166 for his career. Carroll is 28% of the way there in 21% of the games (2,433).
The last player to hit at least 45 triples within his first 500 games before Carroll was Dexter Fowler for the Colorado Rockies in 2012. Jose Reyes and Curtis Granderson did so previously in the 2000s.
In the integration era, there have been 16 players who have hit 45 triples within their first five seasons, according to Stathead. Carroll is on that list 12 games into his fifth season, including his 2022 cup of coffee.
Only seven players on the list hit 45 triples within 500 games.
Carroll plays in the perfect ballpark to take advantage of his speed with a big outfield and tricky angles for the ball to rattle off of. It seems inevitable when he ropes a line drive into the gap or a corner that he will get three bases, as he flies around the diamond making this face:
Win’d in the forecast 💨 pic.twitter.com/3vsmSHMcQH
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 8, 2026
500 with the Diamondbacks
Carroll is one of 17 players to play their first 500 games with the Diamondbacks.
On that list, he ranks first in runs, triples and steals. He is second in extra-base hits behind Paul Goldschmidt and third in home runs behind Mark Reynolds (108) and Goldschmidt (93).
Carroll is already second in D-backs history in triples, tied with David Peralta. Stephen Drew is in the lead with 52. Carroll might beat that by the end of May.
Compared to his peers
Carroll debuted on Aug. 29, 2022, in a memorable game during which he delivered a go-ahead double against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Since then, Carroll ranks third in steals behind Witt (219) and Elly De La Cruz (141) and first in triples by a landslide. Jarren Duran is second with 29.
Carroll entered Wednesday’s game ranked 20th in OPS at .835 and eighth in wins above replacement (FanGraphs) for position players with 18.2.
He is off to a hot start this season, hitting .333 as the D-backs’ most dangerous offensive threat so far.
Carroll is only 5-foot-10 but possesses the bat speed and strength to slug with the best of baseball. He pairs that with 99th percentile speed, giving him one of the most potent combinations in the game.
Just how good the homegrown star becomes is the question and to what extent can he lead the Diamondbacks. Because it is going to be much harder to stay on pace with the all-time greats through his next 500 games.
from Arizona Sports https://ift.tt/oRBK4i8
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