Feature Photo: Victor Arano, RHP, Phillies
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When last we met, we were actually coming off of a rare day when NO ONE made their MLB debut, as Sunday was a day of rest for anyone following debutantes!
But with a season tally of 251 newcomers heading into the bright and shining morning of September 12 and an empty dry-erase board over my desk (I call finishing a week with all active potential debutantes having played “running the board”), your humble scribe was looking forward to the end of the first round of Double-A and Triple-A playoffs and the arrival of a few more names, with that magic number of 259 in mind (that would mean we’d topped out the 2016 MLB season’s tally).
Did we get there? Will we get there?
Well, not yet …
Though the overall total of newcomers this week subsided from tidal wave (26 during Week 22 and 16 during Week 23) to gently lapping surf at my toes (seven during this past Week 24, and can you tell I want to get away to the beach?), we hit No. 258 on Friday, September 15 when Milwaukee pitcher Aaron Wilkerson took the mound.
But even as playoffs wound down, the anticipated trickle-up effect was just that: A trickle. We head into Week 25 sitting firmly at 258 debuts, with two players – Orioles pitcher Tanner Scott and Reds pitcher Keury Mella, the latter of whom has been up for six days now without getting into a game – “on the board” and, one would imagine, a few more coming.
But, admittedly, we probably won’t be looking at TOO many more call-ups at this point, which, I confess, sort of surprises me since I have a fairly sizable number of potential debutantes already on their respective teams’ 40-man rosters that I thought we’d see. But, that said, with Tuesday’s Triple-A Championship Game on tap Tuesday, I think we’ll see a few newly minted MLB players and will set a brand new Debutantes Ball record (I know, I know, it’s only the second year but allow me my youthful enthusiasm, okay?)
Click here to view our running table of major league debuts this season!
(Reminder! The MLB Debut table is also found by clicking the Spotlights Tab on our home page, and scrolling to the top sub-menu selection.)
