By matching the historic early-career power and speed of legendary icons, Milwaukee Brewers' young phenom Jackson Chourio is already cementing his place among baseball’s elite.
The Milwaukee Brewers know Jackson Chourio is a superstar; it's just a matter of whether or not he can guide them to a World Series championship.
On Thursday, Sept. 3, MLB Network did a feature on the 22-year-old as he recently joined elite company, and even that may be an understatement.
When looking at players in MLB history before their age-23 season, Chourio is now in the same conversation as Mike Trout and Alex Rodriguez.
Together, those three have not one, not two, but three seasons with 20 or more home runs and 15 or more stolen bases.
Chourio has done it in each of his first three seasons with the Brewers, and it's a feat that hasn't been done since Trout did it in 2012-14 and Rodriguez did so back in 1996-98.
Chourio's name continues to be attached to greatness
Especially in this Chicago Cubs series, it seems like all of the focus was on Cy Young frontrunner Jacob Misiorowski or MVP candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong.
PCA is in a tight battle with Shohei Ohtani, but many believe he's really pulled away in this last month or so.
Obviously, Chourio isn't in that conversation, but he's put up incredible numbers, and that's even with him missing the first full month of the regular season.
Chourio's injury from the World Baseball Classic could've set the Brewers back for the rest of the year, but they went 18-15 before the Venezuelan native made his season debut on Monday, May 4.
Chourio has been a huge part of their season, no doubt, and he's arguably the most important piece if the Brewers were to be a true World Series contender.
For the third straight season, Chourio is sitting at exactly 21 home runs, so it's nearly a guarantee he'll set a new career high in that department this season.
Trout's legacy will forever go down as one of the biggest what-ifs, simply due to the fact that he stayed with the Los Angeles Angels, a team that has struggled for quite some time, and he consistently missed chunks of time due to injury.
As for Rodriguez, he's a World Series Champion, three-time American League MVP, 10-time Silver Slugger, along with plenty of other major accomplishments. Trout has won his fair share of those awards as well.
So, it'll be incredible to watch Chourio continue to grow and see if he truly will be in the same conversation as these legends when his career, which is just getting started, comes to an end.
