Jacob Wilson Is in a League of His Own Amongst MLB Rookies

It feels like it’s been a long, long time since the rookie classes in each league have been as stacked as they are in 2025. The amount of raw talent so many of these first-year players have already been showing off is utterly ridiculous.

Prior to the regular season kicking off, Jasson Dominguez and Kristian Campbell felt like the co-favorites in the American League, while Roki Sasaki and Dylan Crews were largely viewed as the two favorites in the National League. Through the first month or so of the new year, the AL side of this has delivered, but Sasaki is on the injured list and Crews has been horrendous.

Likewise, Nick Kurtz, Jackson Jobe, Chandler Simpson, Caleb Durbin, and Chase Dollander have all looked somewhere between just okay and not great to open the new season.

You never do really know what you’re going to get from rookies once they hit The Show.

Over in Oakl- I mean, Sacramento, infielder Jacob Wilson has burst out of the gate and forced his name not only into Rookie of the Year discussions, but to the forefront of betting odds all around. The son of former Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star Jack Wilson, Jacob’s been one of baseball’s best hitters through the first month-plus of the 2025 season.

Let’s take a closer look at just how special of a performance we’re seeing from a player that has yet to even play in 85 games at the big league level.

All stats updated prior to games on Friday, May 30

Jacob Wilson Is Running Away in the AL Rookie of the Year Race

Wilson was the Athletics‘ first-round pick back in the 2023 MLB Draft, which underscores how lucky some teams can get with their early-round draft picks. A player as young and inexperienced as Wilson used to take four years or so to get up to the big leagues, let alone succeed there.

Yet, Wilson’s here annihilating opposing pitching after appearing in a measly 79 minor league games. The 23-year-old has one of the most unique batting stances in the game, but he uses that to his advantage. He’s still so young, but Wilson’s got some of the best pitch recognition around. It’s not everyday you see someone at his age boast walk and strikeout rates like he does.

The best way to describe Wilson as a player is contact-oriented and defensive-minded, but he’s also got a decent amount of pop, too. He’s basically right-handed Luis Arraez with more pop and better defense. He doesn’t hit the ball very hard at all (6th percentile in Hard-Hit%, 1st in Bat Speed, 12th in AVG Exit Velocity), but he makes an outstanding amount of contact and hardly every swings at bad pitches.

As a whole, Wilson is still criminally underrated around the industry, despite the fact that he’s on fire at the plate. Take FOX Sports’ Rookie of the Year Odds as all the proof you’ll need. You’ll notice that Wilson is not even mentioned in the top-10 in the AL.

Where Does He Stand in the Rookie Leaderboards?

We’re talking about a player here that doesn’t have a skillset similar to many others around baseball. So when taking a look at the rookie leaderboards, it may not be all that surprising to see where Wilson ranks amongst his other first-year players.

It almost feels like looking at a table of Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani’s placement on leaderboards, doesn’t it?

Ohtani himself tops the league-wide leaderboards in home runs (20), runs (59), and ISO (.356) while Judge leads the way in BABIP (.463), AVG (.391), OBP (.488), SLG (.739), wOBA (.508), wRC+ (239), and fWAR (4.7).

Oh, and in a development that will surprise exactly zero people, Wilson’s strikeout rate is only bested by Mr. Arraez himself.

Clearly Wilson has a ways to go to catch up to either of them, but that’s besides the point. What makes the start to his big league career so impressive is the fact that he’s got the third-highest batting average in baseball while trailing only Judge in base hits (73 vs. Judge’s 81).

It’s not often that you see a rookie dominating the leaderboards in so many categories while simultaneously being able to hang with the big dogs in a few of the other areas.

Closing Thoughts

What’s going to hurt Wilson’s path to the spotlight like so many other stars around the league is the fact that the A’s have started to free-fall in the standings. They were a feel-good story all throughout the second half of last season, and they came out of the gates playing respectable ball this year, too.

Now, they’re 23-34 which is only eight games out of first place in the AL West, but they’ve also got one win in their last 10 games and their run differential is -101. The only team that number is above in the league is the Colorado Rockies, who sit at -175. This is less than ideal, and it’s going to be hard for Wilson to continue to gain recognition as a true stud if his team is locked in the basement of their division.

Still, Wilson may not even stop with only Rookie of the Year consideration by the time the season comes to a close. He’s been on an absolute tear, and if he can continue to hit for some pop for the first time in his professional career, we may be talking about an MVP candidate come October. We’ll save those discussions for another time.