'He’s the fastest man in baseball': Carroll wows across the diamond

PHOENIX -- Eugenio Suárez had a lot to smile about this weekend. But when the third baseman -- who, on Saturday, became just the 19th player in MLB history to record a four-homer game -- saw reporters sauntering toward Corbin Carroll’s locker after the D-backs' 6-4 victory in Sunday’s series finale at Chase Field, he was grinning ear-to-ear about his teammate:

“He’s the fastest man in baseball!”

Depending on how you measure that, Carroll certainly has a good case.

Exhibit A: His first-inning leadoff triple for the D-backs, in which he scooted around the bases in 11.02 seconds from home to third, set the mark for quickest in the big leagues thus far in 2025.

That mark lasted all of six innings, as Carroll presented Exhibit B, ripping a ball to his pull side in the seventh and turning on the afterburners to make it to third in 10.87 seconds. Since Statcast began tracking home-to-third times in 2015, Carroll became the first player to have two sub-11.05-second times in a single contest.

The previous top mark this season was Minnesota’s Byron Buxton, who went home-to-third in 11.19 seconds on a triple Friday night. Since 2019, Carroll is responsible for nine of the 20-fastest such times across the Majors.

So what goes into running the bases faster than literally anyone else in the league?

“I’ll just say that between first and second [base], there is like a decision point on most of those,” Carroll said. “And it's either a yes or a no, and if it's a yes, just kind of give it what I got.

“[The outfielder’s arm] is definitely a factor that's important there. But I think the most important one is probably where the ball is. … Our coaches do a really good job with that. Before every series, we've got a good idea of how the outfielders' arms play, and that's really helpful.”

Carroll, who also holds the top three home-to-second times in the Majors this year, recorded a pair of triples in a game for the first time in his pro career. But before his wheels could captivate the 33,544 fans in attendance, he wowed with his throwing arm.

The D-backs were in a pickle from the word go Sunday, with each of the first two Atlanta batters getting into scoring position against starter Brandon Pfaadt. A medium-deep fly ball down the right-field line looked like it might score a run and put an Arizona club that played nonstop white-knuckle games all week behind the eight ball.

But a seed from Carroll hit catcher Jose Herrera on one hop, allowing him to slap the tag on Alex Verdugo. It marked Carroll’s third assist from right field in 28 games, putting him on pace to fly past the four he recorded at the spot in 78 contests last year.

“I think Corbin set the tone for us today, throwing that guy out at home and then coming up to bat and hitting the leadoff triple,” Pfaadt said. “So shout out to him. He's a game changer and hopefully he keeps doing this thing.”

Carroll became just the fourth player since at least 1974 to have three instances in his career of recording an outfield assist and a triple in the same inning, joining Gene Richards, Mickey Rivers and Tony Gwynn. His 21 extra-base hits (and four triples) lead the Majors, while his three right-field assists are tied for second.

“Corbin is hard working in the areas of his game that he knows that he knows that need work, and I know that he's on a crusade to complete his game,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “Once he gets there, he's probably never going to stop saying until that he's finally done.”