The first month of the 2024 MLB season is in the books, which means it's time for the first edition of our rookie rankings.

Baltimore Orioles left fielder Colton Cowser and Chicago Cubs left-hander Shōta Imanaga would get my first-place vote for AL and NL Rookie of the Year honors if the season ended today, but there is still a lot of baseball left to be played.

These rankings will be updated each month throughout the season, with rookies rising and falling based on their recent performances, but for now we only have one month's worth of games to go on, so it's simply a rundown of the best overall rookie performers.

Future expectations, long-term upside, preseason prospect rankings and minor league track records were not a factor in these rankings. The sole focus was 2024 production.

Let the debate begin!

Honorable Mentions

Pitchers

RHP José Buttó, NYM
RHP Hunter Gaddis, CLE
RHP Luis Gil, NYY
LHP Kyle Harrison, SF
LHP Bryan Hudson, MIL
RHP Jordan Leasure, CWS
LHP Yuki Matsui, SD
RHP Max Meyer, MIA
LHP Mitchell Parker, WAS
RHP Justin Slaten, BOS
RHP Cade Smith, CLE
RHP Victor Vodnik, COL
LHP Jordan Wicks, CHC

Hitters

SS Blaze Alexander, ARI
OF Jackson Chourio, MIL
OF Jung Hoo Lee, SF
DH Wyatt Langford, TEX
C Korey Lee, CWS
1B/3B Trey Lipscomb, WAS
3B Joey Ortiz, MIL
OF Andy Pages, LAD
IF/OF Davis Schneider, TOR
OF Jacob Young, WAS

10. OF Evan Carter, Texas Rangers

Stats: 103 PA, 118 OPS+, .213/.311/.461, 11 XBH (5 HR), 10 RBI, 17 R, 1.0 WAR

Evan Carter set the bar extremely high last season by hitting .306/.413/.645 with 10 extra-base hits in 23 games as a September call-up before posting a similarly impressive .300/.417/.500 line and 10 extra-base hits in 17 games during the playoffs.

However, we're focusing solely on what he has done here in 2024 when slotting him in these rankings.

The 21-year-old is hitting .257/.309/.554 over 81 plate appearances since starting the season 0-for-15 in his first five games, so things are trending in the right direction, but he is still searching for more consistency when it comes to making hard contact.

9. OF Jackson Merrill, San Diego Padres

Stats: 106 PA, 111 OPS+, .292/.349/.375, 5 XBH (1 HR), 12 RBI, 12 R, 0.8 WAR

The San Diego Padres have not been shy about trading their top prospects in recent years, but they clung tightly to Jackson Merrill through multiple blockbuster deals, including the Juan Soto trade.

With one of the best hit tools in the minors, it's not hard to see why the Padres made holding onto him a priority, though it was unclear exactly where he fit with a crowded infield at the MLB level.

The answer was a move to center field, and the 21-year-old has taken well to learning a new position on the fly with strong defensive metrics (2 DRS, 19.3 UZR/150) while also shoring up a glaring hole on the Padres roster.

8. RHP Keaton Winn, San Francisco Giants

Stats: 6 GS, 3-3, 3.18 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 10 BB, 28 K, 34.0 IP, 0.8 WAR

Top prospect Kyle Harrison was expected to be the most hyped rookie on the San Francisco Giants roster, and while he is off to a solid start, he has been outshined by teammate Keaton Winn over the first month of the season.

A fifth-round pick in the 2018 draft out of Iowa Western Community College, Winn posted a 4.68 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 42.1 innings last season while making five starts and four relief appearances, and with Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray both sidelined to begin the year he broke camp with a spot in the rotation.

He has allowed just 23 hits in 34 innings over his first six starts, and his .198 opponents' batting average ranks in the top 20 among qualified starters. He has logged three straight quality starts, and has finished at least five full innings in every outing this year.

7. OF Wilyer Abreu, Boston Red Sox

Stats: 82 PA, 135 OPS+, .292/.366/.472, 9 XBH (2 HR), 11 RBI, 13 R, 1.2 WAR

Wilyer Abreu hit .316/.388/.474 with six doubles, two home runs and 14 RBI in 85 plate appearances after making his MLB debut on Aug. 22 last season, and with Masataka Yoshida moving into the primary designed hitter role he was left with a clear path to playing time in the outfield.

The 24-year-old hit .274/.391/.539 with 22 home runs and 65 RBI in 86 games at Triple-A last season, and he has a solid track record of production throughout his time in the Red Sox farm system even though he was never mentioned on leaguewide Top 100 prospect lists.

With Triston Casas and Trevor Story both on the injured list, he has moved into the cleanup spot in the Boston lineup and been one of the team's most productive hitters in the early going.

6. 1B Michael Busch, Chicago Cubs

Stats: 107 PA, 133 OPS+, .269/.336/.505, 10 XBH (6 HR), 17 RBI, 15 R, 0.2 WAR

With Freddie Freeman entrenched at first base, Max Muncy penciled in at the hot corner and Shohei Ohtani taking over as the everyday designated hitter, the Los Angeles Dodgers did not have a clear path to playing time for Michael Busch.

A 2019 first-round pick and longtime top prospect, Busch was traded to the Chicago Cubs in January in a four-player deal that sent promising young left-hander Jackson Ferris the other way, and he was immediately given the inside track to win the starting first base job.

His early production led to the Cubs trading veteran Garrett Cooper to the Boston Red Sox, as there was simply no room for him to receive playing time at first base as expected, and Busch has settled into a primarily run production role in the middle of the lineup.

5. RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers

Stats: 6 GS, 2-1, 3.54 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 6 BB, 37 K, 28.0 IP, 0.4 WAR

Yoshinobu Yamamoto still has a long way to go before he lives up to the 12-year, $325 million contract he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers during the offseason, but he's off to a solid start.

The 25-year-old made an early exit in his MLB debut against the San Diego Padres in South Korea, allowing four hits, one walk and five earned runs while recording just three outs and throwing 43 pitches.

In five starts since that rocky debut, he is 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and a 35-to-3 strikeouts-to-walk ratio in 27 innings, and he is averaging 95.3 mph with his fastball while generating a whiff rate over 35 percent with his curveball and his splitter.

4. SS Masyn Winn, St. Louis Cardinals

Stats: 88 PA, 129 OPS+, .311/.384/.419, 6 XBH (0 HR), 7 RBI, 10 R, 1.2 WAR

With the defensive tools to be a perennial Gold Glove candidate, Masyn Winn only needs to be a league-average offensive player to stake his claim to the everyday shortstop job in St. Louis for the foreseeable future.

The 22-year-old looked completely overmatched at the plate in his MLB debut last season, hitting .172/.230/.238 for a 29 OPS+ in 137 plate appearances, but this year has been a completely different story.

His .272 expected batting average and middling batted-ball numbers suggest there is some regression to come, but he showed he is more than just a glove-first player at Triple-A last season where he hit .288/.359/.474 with 15 doubles, 18 home runs and 61 RBI in 105 games.

3. RHP Jared Jones, Pittsburgh Pirates

Stats: 6 GS, 2-3, 3.18 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 5 BB, 42 K, 34.0 IP, 1.0 WAR

With a 31.8 percent strikeout rate and 3.8 percent walk rate that both rank in the 91st percentile among all qualified pitchers, Jared Jones has been nothing short of dominant in his first taste of the big leagues this season.

A standout two-way player in high school with a strong commitment to the University of Texas, he was signed to an above-slot, $2.2 million bonus as a second round pick in the 2020 draft, and his plus athleticism has served him well on the mound.

He has not allowed more than three earned runs in any of his six starts, and he has struck out at least seven batters five times. The 22-year-old could join Mitch Keller and top prospect Paul Skenes to form a rock solid trio atop the Pittsburgh rotation for years to come.

2. LHP Shōta Imanaga, Chicago Cubs

Stats: 5 GS, 4-0, 0.98 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 3 BB, 28 K, 27.2 IP, 1.2 WAR

After eight seasons in the Japanese League, left-hander Shōta Imanaga joined the Chicago Cubs on a four-year, $53 million deal during the offseason, and while he may not offer the same long-term upside as Yoshinobu Yamamoto he has arrived in the big leagues with more polish.

The Cubs have won all five of his starts, and his 28-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio speaks to his terrific command and ability to keep hitters off balance, especially with his lively fastball up in the zone.

He has pitched almost exclusively off his fastball and splitter, mixing in the occasional sweeper and curveball, and it will be interesting to see if he can maintain that same level of effectiveness with a two-pitch approach going forward.

1. OF Colton Cowser, Baltimore Orioles

Stats: 83 PA, 194 OPS+, .301/.373/.644, 13 XBH (6 HR), 18 RBI, 11 R, 1.1 WAR

When the season started, Colton Cowser did not appear to have a clear starting role in the Baltimore Orioles lineup with Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander all returning in the outfield.

However, his strong early performance and a calf strain that has landed Hays on the injured list has given him a run as the everyday left fielder and he is making the most of it with a 194 OPS+ that ranks fourth among all hitters with at least 80 plate appearances.

The No. 5 overall pick in the 2021 draft ranks among the MLB leaders in hard-hit rate (52.2%, 91st percentile), average exit velocity (91.0 mph, 77th percentile), barrel rate (17.4%, 97th percentile) and expected slugging (.555, 93rd percentile), making it easy to buy the sustainability of his hot start.