This one ended up being quite close, with Jose Fernandez’s debut edging out Merrill Kelly’s complete game in Coors by a single vote [I am exercising executive privilege to call the poll closed at the time of writing. So if there’s a late surge for Kelly between now and this piece going up, I do not care!] This stands in stark contrast to last year, where Eugenio Suarez’s four home-runs was basically unaninimous. It’s actually the first time ever the single-game performance has gone to one in March
– the previous record was April 17, shared by the 2018 and 2015 awards. I suspect these are a bit like the Oscars, with recent outings more likely to stick in your mind, so that says a lot about Fernandez’s entry to the major leagues.
It’s probably fair to say that before this spring, few people had even heard of Fernandez. Doing a quick sweep through the SnakePit archives, the only mention before this year was by Preston in a piece from July 2024, who ranked him the #4 shortstop in the system. He wrote, “The Diamondbacks continue to be higher on Fernandez than most… His ceiling is a regular major league shortstop, his floor is a player who washes out in AA.” Well, as with most things, the truth sits somewhere in the middle, though he has easily surpassed the floor. Fernandez got a cup of coffee in Double-A Amarillo that year, then all of 2025 there, posting a line of .272/.321/.454 for an OPS of .775.
He was added to the 40-man Diamondbacks roster to protect him in November, and I did call him a roster dark-horse in a January piece, noting he was the youngest member of the roster. I did say, “If we see him in the majors this year, that suggests something has gone rather wrong,” though in the comments, Wes opined, “I think he may actually be on the verge of breaking out as a prospect.” That breakout certainly happened in spring training. He went 7-for-25, but every one of those hits went for extra bases, with three doubles, a triple and three home-runs. 15 of his first 18 batted balls in official games had exit velocities above 95 mph.
It wasn’t quite enough to get him an Opening Day spot, having already been optioned to Triple-A Reno on March 8. But barely had the season there got under way – after just a single game, in fact – opportunity came knocking for Fernandez. It came in unfortunate fashion, resulting from an injury to Pavin Smith. Left elbow inflammation got him sent to the IL, and Fernandez was brought up as a utility replacement on March 30. The following day, he made his debut, getting the start at third-base. The results were historic – the first Diamondback ever to hit two home-runs in his major-league debut, part of a 3-for-4 day, with four RBI as the team mounted a thrilling comeback from five runs down against Detroit.
It began in less spectacular fashion, Fernandez legging out an infield single off Casey Mize. It had an exit velocity of 73.2 mph, and a launch angle of… um, -35 degrees. But Jose’s speed turned it into his first hit, an xBA of .070 be damned. By the next time he came up, in the fourth inning, Arizona’s win probability was down to just 6.7%. For the Tigers had scored five runs off Brandon Pfaadt in the third. But Jose started the process of the team digging its way out of the hole, with a 408 ft no doubter to deep left field, getting Arizona on the board. That made him the eighth D-back to homer in his first game, but since 2009, the only other had been Seth Beer in 2021. But, wait! There’s more.
The rest of the Arizona offense finally caught up in the eighth inning. A two-run double from Corbin Carroll made it 5-3, then a Gabriel Moreno groundout gave us a one-run game. With two outs, but men on second and third, Fernandez came up again, to face four-time All-Star, Kenley Jansen, who had come out of the bullpen to take on the rookie. After taking a pair of cutters, one for a called strike, the other a ball low, Jansen threw Fernandez a third cutter, and Jose had seen enough. This one went a foot further than his first home-run, becoming a three-run shot to left-center, and provided the final margin of victory in a sterling 7-5 Diamondbacks win. Fernandez became just the eighth player in MLB history with a two-homer debut.
Quotes
- “Stay calm, keep the emotions in check. I knew something like that could happen, and just looked for a pitch… I /returned to my days as a kid. It transports you back to being a kid.” — Jose Fernandez
- “He deserves all this credit. We’re so proud of him. He’s a player who came through our system, through our academy, and it’s a great story, a great baseball story. We’ve known about Jose for a long time. We knew he was coming.” — Torey Lovullo
- “Kenley’s one of the greatest closers of all time. He has a very unique cutter that he uses at the top of the zone. It really was just Carlos [Santana] and I trying to give him as much information as possible so that he wasn’t surprised the first time he saw it. And I guess he wasn’t.” — James McCann
- “I think it’s super cool for Carlos and James to do that for him. And for (Fernandez) to be able to take all of that in and go out there and do what he did, I think it’s pretty special.” — Brandon Pfaadt
Naturally, it was difficult for Fernandez to live up to that debut. Indeed, in the two hundred at-bats Jose had the rest of the season, he managed to hit just one more home-run, and currently has an ongoing streak of 130 ABs since his last one. But nobody can ever take away the most remarkable debut by a position player in franchise history.
Previous winners
- 2025: 4/26 – Eugenio Suarez’s four HR
- 2024: 9/8 – Pavin Smith goes off
- 2023: 9/8 – Zac Gallen complete game versus Cubs + Merrill Kelly’s dominant World Series Game 2 start
- 2022: 9/22 – Zac Gallen dominates Dodgers
- 2021: 8/14 – Tyler Gilbert’s no-hitter
- 2020: 9/2 – Zac Gallen one-hits the Dodgers
- 2019: 9/7 – Alex Young’s rookie record
- 2018: 4/17 – Patrick Corbin one-hits the Giants
- 2017: 9/4 – J.D Martinez, 4 HR vs. LAD
- 2016: 7/16 – Jake Lamb is clutch
- 2015: 4/17 – Josh Collmenter, complete-game shutout + three hits
- 2014: 5/29 – Josh Collmenter’s imperfect game
- 2013: 8/13 – Paul Goldschmidt, tying HR in 9th, walk-off HR in 11th, +79.8% WP
- 2012: 6/29 – Aaron Hill’s cycle #2 vs. Milwaukee
- 2011: 4/25 – Ian Kennedy complete-game
- 2010: 6/25 – Edwin Jackson, no-hitter vs. Tampa Bay
- 2009: 6/7 – B-bullpen no-hits the Padres for nine innings
- 2008: 4/18 – Conor Jackson, runs through the cycle
- 2007: 8/18 – Micah Owings, two-way threat
