2025 Diamondbacks Player Reviews #39: Jake McCarthy

Overview

• Rating: 4.20

• 2025 Stats: 206 AB’s, .204 AVG, 4 HR, 6 SB, .592 OPS,  -0.7 bWAR

• Date of Birth: July 30, 1997 (age-28 season)

• 2025 Earnings: $803,900

• 2026 Status: Arbitration

2025 Review

There might not have been any single player that lowered their value as much as Jake McCarthy did in 2025. Coming off of a promising 2024 campaign where Jake batted .285 with a .749 OPS with a 110 wRC+ and stole 25 bases, McCarthy started off the year going 3-47. An almost impossible to come back from start to the season. Not only was McCarthy not hitting, but he also was not walking leading to an abysmal .592 OPS which also prevented him from getting to his game changing speed because he was never on base. In short, you would be hard pressed to find a Dbacks player in the last 5 or so years who saw as many AB’s as Jake did and provided as little offensive value as he did. This translated to a 60 wRC+  or a 40% below league average offensive contributor. Pretty tough to stomach that kind of offensive production at a corner OF spot.

Not only did McCarthy not hit, but he also was just average in the outfield. Like how come McCarthy with 99th percentile sprint speed only grades out as having slightly above average outfield range? Especially when he gets most of his appearances at the corner outfield spots and he has Dave McKay as an outfield coach.

2026 Outlook

In fairness to Jake, in 2024 where he was a 110 wRC+ hitter he also had a .329 BABIP and in 2025 where he was a 60 wRC+ hitter he had a .233 BABIP. So he realistically got lucky in 2024 and unlucky in 2025 so the real Jake McCarthy is somewhere in between. And it is just really hard to stomach giving significant AB’s to a below average offensive contributor who  doesn’t get on base enough to use his speed, and whose speed has never really translated into fielding prowess.

Because his 1 true above average tool he cant seem to get to in the field or at the plate, I fear the Dbacks missed a golden opportunity to trade and sell high on McCarthy last offseason. And now given his BABIP luck, it feels like they would be selling low. Ultimately I still feel like McCarthy gets moved this offseason given the lack of available OF talent and hopefully the Dbacks can atleast get a marginal relief pitcher back for him. While I really like McCarthy as a player, he has become way too replaceable especially for a team with multiple 4th outfielder type guys like Jorge Barrosa and Tim Tawa ready and waiting in the wings.