The National League Rookie of the Year race remains headed up by Jackson Merrill of the Padres and Paul Skenes of the Pirates, but it's an impressive field that extends to the likes of Shota Imanaga, Michael Busch, Gavin Stone and Tyler Fitzgerald. The one closest to the Merrill/Skenes tier, of course, would be Brewers youngster Jackson Chourio.
And Chourio made some history Thursday night when he went deep with this opposite-field shot in San Francisco:
The Brewers won the game, 3-0, and moved to 84-62 on the season. It's a nine-game lead in the NL Central. They wouldn't be in this position without Chourio.
That was the 20th homer of the season for the 20-year-old outfielder. He also has 20 stolen bases. At 20 years and 185 days old, Chourio became the youngest player in history to reach 20 homers and 20 stolen bases. It was close, though, as two others reached the plateau during their age-20 seasons. Chourio wins the tiebreaker on days and is the youngest ever.
Here are the youngest 20-20 players ever.
Player | Age | Season | Home runs | Stolen bases |
Jackson Chourio | 20 | 2024 | 20 | 20 |
Vada Pinson | 20 | 1959 | 20 | 21 |
Mike Trout | 20 | 2012 | 30 | 49 |
Ronald Acuña Jr. | 21 | 2019 | 41 | 37 |
César Cedeño | 21 | 1972 | 22 | 55 |
Orlando Cepeda | 21 | 1959 | 27 | 23 |
Andruw Jones | 21 | 1998 | 31 | 27 |
Vada Pinson | 21 | 1960 | 20 | 32 |
Alex Rodríguez | 21 | 1997 | 23 | 29 |
Julio Rodríguez | 21 | 2022 | 28 | 25 |
Mike Trout | 21 | 2013 | 27 | 33 |
Justin Upton | 21 | 2009 | 26 | 20 |
Chourio will attempt to join Pinson and Trout next season in getting there twice before turning 22, but let's focus on the present here.
The Brewers had the foresight to sign Chourio to an 8-year, $82 million contract extension with club options for 2032 and 2033 before the season began. He started slow, but he's only 20 years old. That's no crime. Where Chourio deserves a ton of credit is adapting to the league on the fly and stepping up when the Brewers lost All-Star outfielder and former MVP Christian Yelich for the rest of the season due to injury.
It didn't coincide perfectly, but it was close enough. Yelich last played on July 23. Chourio's hot streak has basically been the entire second half, which started on July 20. Check out the difference in his numbers.
1st half: .243/.294/.384, 12 2B, 0 3B, 9 HR, 35 RBI, 41 R, 10 SB in 85 games
2nd half: .314/.371/.585, 14 2B, 2 3B, 11 HR, 36 RBI, 30 R, 10 SB in 47 games
The Brewers are cruising to their fourth NL Central title in the last seven seasons. A big part of that is a kid who was 14 years old when that stretch started. He's already making history and the Brewers have him locked up long term.