This is one exclusive club. Simply put, there just aren’t that many big leaguers who earn the title of MLB superstar.
Players like Clayton Kershaw and Miguel Cabrera easily fit the bill, and each season, a host of rising stars aim to join the ranks. “Superstar” is a tricky term to define. For the purposes of this list, the idea is to find five big leaguers on the verge of joining that stratosphere.
The first requirement is that all the players on the slides that follow must have actually appeared in a big league game. The minors are flooded with highly talented players, but it’s not fair to put them in the superstar conversation before they’ve actually stepped onto a major league diamond.
The second requirement is that none of the players who crack this list can be too established in the majors. The idea is to avoid including players who have already broken out. Think Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals, who is entering just his third season, but who earned an All-Star nod in 2014 and landed No. 5 in National League MVP award balloting. As a cutoff, any player who has already appeared in an All-Star Game is ineligible.
As a result, the five players on this list have all enjoyed some success in the major leagues, but they have yet to establish themselves as All-Star-caliber contributors. Thanks to the way these players performed in 2014 and how they have stepped up this spring, all five have the ability to take off in the upcoming campaign.