Let’s start with a quick comparison. Here is fWAR through age 24 for Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh:
- Raleigh: -0.1 fWAR
- Julio: 18.0 fWAR (and counting)
This is not a dig at Cal, who is currently having one of the best seasons, well, ever. You can read about his excellence here and here and here and here and here and here and too many other places to list them all. I share these numbers simply to push against the sentiment, however pervasive it is, that was summarized last week by Jeff Passan on 710 ESPN.