Milwaukee Brewers 20 year old rookie Jackson Chourio was compared to a lot of players before making his big league debut on Opening day. Ronald Acuna Jr was the most common player that he was compared to, but now that he is nearly 100 games into his MLB career another player comparison has surfaced.
Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers draws comparison to current 25 year old superstar.
On ESPN Baseball Tonight Buster Olney said that the success that Jackson Chourio is having reminds him a lot of Juan Soto. Olney inferred that the success each had right away at a young age is why Chourio reminds him of Soto. WAR was used as a reference point for Olney in which this year Chourio has a 2.1 bWAR and Soto had a 3.0 bWAR his rookie year.
👀 Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio reminds @Buster_ESPN of Juan Soto 👇 pic.twitter.com/LqmLHkRCfO
— Paul Hembekides (Hembo) (@PaulHembo) August 7, 2024
Juan Soto was much more dominant offensively as a rookie offensively than Jackson Chourio.
In 2018 Juan Soto posted a .923 OPS, hit 22 home runs, collected 70 RBI, and for all but one day early on in the season his batting average stayed above .300 until the middle of August. On the other hand this year Jackson Chourio struggled the first few months, but since June 1 he is slashing .320/.362/.503 with seven home runs and 30 RBI.
Where Jackson Chourio has the edge over Juan Soto is defense.
During his rookie campaign Juan Soto was rated at best as an average outfield defender. If anything a few metrics had him slightly below average. Jackson Chourio is the opposite. As a rookie he is one of the best defenders with excellent range. His top notch defense in combination with league average offense numbers (100 OPS+ this year) has resulted in a positive WAR.
All this being said the point Buster Olney was trying to make is that both Jackson Chourio and Juan Soto both experienced success as young players in Major League Baseball. Even though they are finding success in different ways it is not very often that major prospects can live up to the hype placed upon them while climbing up the minor league ranks.
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