Nearly three months of Major League Baseball’s 2024 season is complete, and 23 Whitecaps alumni are currently playing on baseball’s biggest stage.
Here’s our first alumni update of the summer, highlighting five former 'Caps excelling in 2024.
Aaron Judge — New York Yankees
The Yankees slugger could top this list just about any week. He’s a face of the league, an MVP winner (and perennial candidate) and one of the best players to filter through the Cape Cod Baseball League in recent memory. He suited up for Brewster in 2012 after his sophomore season at Fresno State, playing 32 games and hitting .270 with five homers and 16 RBI.
This year, he’s been having another benchmark season in the Bronx. His 26 home runs are good for the most in MLB, and he’s also atop the league in slugging percentage (.686), OPS (1.111) and walks (57). For now, he’s the odds-on favorite to win the American League MVP — all while leading his team to a 51-26 record. Not too shabby.
Brent Rooker — Oakland A’s
Rooker earned an All-Star Game nod in his first year with the A’s last season, and he has continued that momentum into the 2024 campaign. The Mississippi State alum is hitting .260 with 13 home runs and 44 RBI thus far with a 147 OPS+. Excluding the 2020 season, where he played just seven games, Rooker is on track to have the best season of his young career.
He first appeared with the Whitecaps in 2015 for a short stint after spending most of the summer with the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Plymouth Pilgrims (he was named NECBL MVP and Most Improved Player). He returned to play for the Whitecaps the following summer, hitting .305 with 22 RBI and earning an All-Star appearance.
Rooker was drafted 35th overall in the 2017 Draft by the Minnesota Twins, and spent time with the Twins, Padres and Royals before landing with Oakland, where he has truly found his groove as a hitter after a breakout 2023 season. He’s coming off a 4-for-9, three-RBI performance series against the Kansas City Royals this week.
Michael Lorenzen — Texas Rangers
A year removed from a 2023 season that included an All-Star appearance and a no-hitter, Lorenzen is having another strong year after signing with Rangers in March. The veteran right-hander posted a 2.96 ERA through 54 2/3 innings, and is recording career-best numbers in a number of advanced stat categories — like batting average against (.209) and BABIP against (.222).
Lorenzen played alongside Judge on the 2012 'Caps, although he split that summer between Team USA and the cape. He both pitched and hit during his stint with Brewster, and even mashed a three-run home run in a win over Orleans.
He’s been impressive recently, allowing just seven runs over his past six starts. In a start against the Giants on June 7, he tossed 4 1/3 innings of two-run ball with seven strikeouts. He followed that up with a seven-inning gem against the Dodgers on June 13, allowing just one run.
Will Smith — Los Angeles Dodgers
Smith has solidified his spot as one of the best catchers in baseball, with an argument to be at the top of the list. Coming off the first All-Star appearance of his career last year, Smith has tallied an 148 OPS+ this season to go along with nine home runs and a .299 average. He also cuts down on attempted base stealers at the highest rate among catchers, leading the league with a 43% caught stealing percentage this year. This past offseason, he also secured a 10-year, $140 million contract extension with the Dodgers.
Smith played in 10 games for the Whitecaps in 2015, posting a .259 average in 27 at-bats. At that point, he was a rising junior at Louisville. The Dodgers selected him in the first round of the 2016 Draft, and he made his big league debut in 2019.
This season, Smith has once again been part of LA’s formidable top of the lineup — one which now includes Shohei Ohtani. He’s primarily been batting fourth, behind Mookie Betts, Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.
Dominic Canzone — Seattle Mariners
After breaking into the majors with the Arizona Diamondbacks last season, Canzone is settling into his big league career in Seattle, where he has earned consistent reps in right field. He’s 26 years old and five years removed from getting drafted by the D-backs in 2019. He was moved to Seattle by trade, when the D-backs acquired closer Paul Sewald at the trade deadline for their postseason run.
Canzone — who went to Ohio State — had an impressive season with the Whitecaps in 2018, earning a Cape League All-Star appearance after posting a .276 average with 7 RBI in 30 games. He was red-hot in the CCBL postseason, going 9-for-18 in four games with three extra-base hits.
He’s still finding his footing in the Majors but has proven that he has some pop, with six homers so far this year.
Photo credit to Avery Raimondo.
