Diamondbacks outfield prospect Corbin Carroll will undergo shoulder surgery that will keep him out of action for the remainder of the 2021 season, MLB Pipeline’s William Boor reports. The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (via Twitter) adds the detail that Carroll injured his shoulder while hitting a home run — presumably the solo homer Carroll hit on May 10, in his last game with the high-A level Hillsboro Hops.
Selected with the 16th overall pick of the 2019 draft, Carroll has hit .316/.428/.542 over his first 215 plate appearances in pro ball. Between this injury and the canceled 2020 minor league season, Carroll will lose two critical years of development, though Buchanan notes that the 20-year-old Carroll was seen as being “already ahead of the curve.”
Carroll is the consensus pick as the top prospect in Arizona’s farm system, and one of the better minor leaguers in all of baseball. Fangraphs ranks him 20th on their top prospects list, and Carroll also has high finishes on top-100 rankings from Keith Law (23rd), Baseball America (34th) and MLB.com (38th).
Carroll is already considered to be big league-ready as a center field-capable defender and a baserunner with 70-grade speed, and is seen as a future leadoff man due to his on-base skills and contact-oriented approach at the plate. “So exceptional are Carroll’s hand-eye coordination and barrel accuracy, especially for his age, that he now has among the best hit tool projections in the minors,” according to Fangraphs’ scouting report.
