Is it ever too early to look ahead to next season?

With the snowy season already rolling in, some may say about a month too early, the Winter Meetings will be starting soon, which will help commence the push for the next season of MLB baseball to start up yet again. There will be quite a few big fish in the free agency market this offseason, which will yet again make it very interesting to see which teams decide to go all-in on their quest for winning a championship in 2020.

While games that matter and count are technically won during the regular season, setting yourself up to actually win those games when needed happens many years in advance with the development of a franchise’s minor league system. And as we saw in 2019, rookies can have an immense impact on any team’s chances of making the postseason.

With Pete Alonso of the New York Mets and Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros winning their respective league’s Rookie of the Year awards for 2019, the new crop of rookies will have high bars to live up to for 2020. But with every rookie class looking to be even better than the one prior to them, this 2020 class is dripping with potential and should be very exciting to keep tabs on for next season.

Here are five likely candidates to vie for the National League Rookie of the Year award in 2020.

Sixto Sanchez – SP, Miami Marlins

While the Miami Marlins have long become the league’s laughing stock ever since Derek Jeter came in and tore the team down, they have received some key pieces in these deals that will set them up to succeed in a very short manner.

One of those key pieces came from the Philadelphia Phillies in the deal that sent star catcher J.T. Realmuto away, and that piece is starting pitcher Sixto Sanchez, who was very highly regarded when he entered the Phillies’ minor-league system. As the main prize for the Marlins for Realmuto, Sanchez has developed into a pitcher that has a ton of potential to become the staff’s ace as soon as 2020.

Jorge Alfaro has become this team’s starting catcher now, who actually came along with Sanchez to Miami in the same deal, but Sanchez has looked to be the better prospect acquired in this deal for the Marlins. With the Marlins looking to field one of their best minor league systems since the days of Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, J.T. Realmuto, and the late Jose Fernandez, both Sanchez and Alfaro have already made that jump to the big leagues, hopefully starting the trend for some of the organization’s younger generation to join them soon.

Dylan Carlson – OF, St. Louis Cardinals

Making the climb from Double-A Springfield and then to Triple-A Memphis, the fourth-youngest player in the Texas League, outfielder Dylan Carson, has been all through and around the St. Louis Cardinals, dating back to his spring training non-roster invitation.

Having been playing so well and swinging the bat just as well as when he was drafted, Carlson decided that he wanted to show everyone what he was about and went out and not only earned an invite to the Futures Game, but he also won the Texas League Most Valuable Player award in at the Double-A level. With that performance, he earned a promotion to Triple-A Memphis Redbirds in the middle of August.

While helping the Redbirds across the end of their season, Carlson showed that his bat, base-stealing abilities, and his defensive awareness translate across all levels of baseball, proving that his talent will force the hand of the Cardinals’ management, making them find a spot for him on the active 25-man roster. Carlson has most of his experience playing in the outfield, specifically in center field, but his ability to also play first base opens up some positional flexibility for the youngster to help this team in different ways.

Having hit .361/.418/.681 across 18 games in the highest level of the minor leagues, he was tied for third in the Pacific League in hits with 26, tied for fifth with 11 extra-base hits, and tied for fourth in total bases with 49. His 26 long balls set a career-high for Carlson, which just so happens to be the same number of home runs that he hit the past three seasons across the minor leagues, combined.

With the potential loss of Ozuna from their starting outfield for 2020, Carlson looks to be more than capable of becoming the next great young Cardinals prospect to make that final climb to the major leagues. As much as this team needs to go out and bring in some outside talent, Carlson may be the exception here, which would help keep the costs down and help St. Louis push some money to other elements of their team, like upgrading their bullpen or starting rotation.

Jon Duplantier – SP, Arizona Diamondbacks

Ranked as the sixth-best prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ farm system, starting pitcher Jon Duplantier received a brief cup of coffee at the major-league level and looks to become a great addition to this team’s rotation to help fill the void left by the trade of Zack Greinke.

Having been called up to earn the save on April 1 for his National League debut, he only pitched 36 2/3 innings due to right shoulder inflammation, so he should be recovered and ready to go for the 2020 season. Duplantier is a great young stud of a pitcher who still holds an option for the minor leagues, so the Diamondbacks should not feel rushed to add him to their big-league roster right away.

In what looks to be yet another disappointing season out in the desert having to look up to the always-winning Los Angeles Dodgers, the Diamondbacks should welcome any and all experience that Duplantier can earn at the big league level without pushing the issue. While not ranked in the top 100 prospects across the MLB, he still has really good stuff that can easily translate at the professional level.

Gavin Lux – 2B/SS, Los Angeles Dodgers

Seen as the easy winner of the National League Rookie of the Year award by most pundits and voters across the league, Gavin Lux has already welcomed himself to the league with an outstanding season that resulted in him earning postseason at-bats in his first professional season.

While the Dodgers are not too keen on listening to others in terms of their thoughts on playing time for rookies, Lux proved to everyone immediately the type of player that he already has become after being drafted in the first round of the draft in 2016. It does seem to be quite unfair that the Dodgers get to keep churning out solid to great prospects on a yearly basis (Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, and now Lux), but Lux does seem to be a bit different than both of those before him.

Lux has already shown us what he is fully capable of, while Bellinger and Muncy had times of struggling in their first taste of the major leagues. While Lux will almost certainly experience that at some point too, he showed that the Dodgers will need to look for regular playing time and at-bats for him going into 2020.

Mackenzie Gore – SP, San Diego Padres

The lone left-hander on this list, the third-overall selection in the 2017 MLB draft Mackenzie Gore looks to be the next great prospect to made his major-league debut for the San Diego Padres in 2020. Having earned the MLB Pipeline Pitcher of the Year award this past season, Gore’s impact on the Friars would be a huge boost to a starting rotation that looks to be one or two pieces away from being solid yet again.

Having only made it up to Double-A so far in the minors, Gore’s impact for the Padres would be the icing on the cake for their minor-league system, which recently graduated spark plug Fernando Tatis Jr. to the majors after putting together a great rookie campaign as the team’s starting shortstop. While Gore should not be expected to start immediately on the active roster, his mid-season climb to the majors would be a big-time boost for the Padres as they look to make their triumphant return to the postseason.

General manager A.J. Preller has set this team up to succeed and succeed they will – with Gore in the league at some point in 2020 most likely, the Padres easily should become a dark-horse candidate for one of the two Wild Card slots in the National League for 2020 and many years to come after that.