Corbin Franklin Carroll was born on August 21, 2000, in Seattle, Washington,[1] to Brant and Pey-Lin Carroll.[2] He is biracial; his father is Irish-American, and his mother was born in Taiwan and moved to Louisiana with her parents at the age of four.[3] Carroll has a younger sister who went to Holy Names Academy and became a soccer player. The family grew up in an Asian-American neighborhood in Seattle.[4] Carroll participated in cross-country sports to improve his speed.[5]
Carroll played on the USA 18U National Team that won Gold in the 2018 COPABE Pan-American Championships. He attended Lakeside SchoolinSeattle, Washington.[6][7][8] As a senior in 2019, he hit .540 with nine home runs and a 1.859 OPS.[6] He committed to play college baseballatUCLA.[9]
The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Carroll with the 16th overall pick in the first round of the 2019 Major League Baseball draft.[10][11] He signed for $3.7 million and was assigned to the Arizona League Diamondbacks to make his professional debut.[12][13][14] After batting .291 with two home runs, 14 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases over 31 games, he was promoted to the Hillsboro Hops on August 8.[15] Over 11 games with Hillsboro, he batted .326 with six RBIs.[16] Between the two teams, he batted .299/.409/.487 in 154 at bats, with 18 stolen bases in 19 attempts.[17]
Carroll did not play a minor league game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[18] He returned to Hillsboro to begin the 2021 season. However, in early May, Carroll injured his shoulder while hitting a home run and later underwent season-ending shoulder surgery.[19][20][21] At the time, he was 10-for-23 (.435) for the season.[17]
Carroll opened the 2022 season with the Amarillo Sod Poodles.[22] In early July, he was promoted to the Reno Aces.[23] With three minor league teams in 2022 he batted .307/.425/.611 in 362 at bats with 24 home runs and 31 steals in 36 attempts.[17]
The Diamondbacks promoted Carroll to the major leagues on August 29, 2022.[24] He made his debut later that day, against the Philadelphia Phillies. He went 1–for-5 with a two-RBI double.[25] On September 7, Carroll hit his first career home run, a solo shot off of San Diego Padres starter Yu Darvish.[26] In 2022 with Arizona, he batted .260/.330/.500 in 104 at bats, playing primarily left field, and was the seventh-youngest ballplayer in the National League.[27] He had the fastest sprint speed of any major league player, at 30.7 feet/second.[28][29]
Carroll in 2024
On March 11, 2023, Carroll signed a contract extension worth $111 million over eight years with the Diamondbacks.[30] On June 29, 2023, it was announced Carroll would be a starting outfielder in the 2023 All-Star Game, his first career All-Star appearance.[31][32] Carroll became the first rookie in major league history to record 25 home runs and 50 stolen bases in one season.[33] In Game 7 of the 2023 National League Championship Series, Carroll went 3-for-4 with two stolen bases, becoming the second-youngest player in MLB history with at least three hits and two steals in a playoff game, just behind Ty Cobb when he did it in the 1908 World Series at 21 years old.[34] Carroll won the National League Rookie of the Year Award by a unanimous vote, becoming the first Diamondbacks player to win the award (the Diamondbacks were the only remaining franchise to not win it at the time).[35]
In the first half of the 2024 season, Carroll's performance declined significantly. Prior to the All-Star Game, Carroll had a dismal batting average of .212 with only 5 home runs, 32 RBIs, and 18 stolen bases through 94 games.[36] This was a sharp dropoff compared to the first half of his rookie season, in which Carroll batted .289 with 18 home runs, 48 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases before the All-Star Game. Carroll achieved his first half rookie numbers in 86 games, 8 games fewer than in 2024, further highlighting his sophomore slump.[37]
