3 reasons why Zach Neto will be baseball's next star shortstop

Zach Neto is a rookie who plays like a ten-year veteran

When a young player comes up for the first time, you often expect them to try and do too much. They swing out of their shoes trying to hit home runs, they chase out of the zone, they try and force the action on the basepaths, there're many things players can do to try and push the envelope.

We've seen this before with a hyped up young player who comes up and disappoints. Jo Adell has all the tools in the world but had no idea what he was swinging at and was striking out at rates that made him unplayable regularly at this level. Adell can still be a great MLB player, but we haven't seen it yet.

Neto came up as inexperienced as anyone, but he looks and plays like a ten-year veteran out there. His baseball IQ is off the charts, and his poise has been something to admire.

Often we see rookies chase. Neto ranks in the 77th percentile in chase rate according to baseball savant. Playing on a team with superstars like Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani he's still super selective and rarely chases.

How about his approach at the plate? We all know and love the wild leg kick he has. Neto has as high of a leg kick as anyone in the game, but only until there're two strikes. The youngster does not ever want to strikeout and completely changes his approach with two strikes. He shortens up, and loses the high leg kick. You just don't see these things from rookies.

We've seen Neto make heady defensive plays and he's provided value on the basepaths as well. He has speed and picks his spot to steal bases really well, as he's swiped five bags without being caught.

His feel for the game as a 22-year-old is unlike anything I've seen in a long time. His maturity and baseball IQ will help him become the star we all know he's capable of becoming.