Epic Moments: Baseball's best young combos

Each Wednesday in July, MLB.com is featuring four hours of special content highlighting the game’s young stars to get fans ready for the start of the 2020 season.

This week’s edition, titled “Epic Moments: Dynamic Combos,” showcased must-see moments from two exciting young hitters per team.

Among those featured this week were both leagues' reigning Rookie of the Year Award winners, Pete Alonso and Yordan Alvarez, along with teammates Michael Conforto and Alex Bregman. Bregman almost won an award himself last season, finishing second in the American League MVP race.

There were plenty of past Rookie of the Year Award winners on display as well, including Cody Bellinger, who followed up his 2017 honor with an NL MVP Award in 2019. He was featured alongside teammate Corey Seager, who won Rookie of the Year honors the season before Bellinger. The duo represents the club’s two most recent Rookie of the Year winners -- of a record 18 total.

The 2019 AL MVP was highlighted, too, with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani featured for the Angels. Ohtani won the Rookie of the Year Award in 2018, six years after Trout took home the same honor. Now, the two mash together in the Angels’ lineup. And though this week’s focus is on hitters, it’s worth noting that Ohtani is expected to return to the mound this season.

Don’t forget the Atlanta duo of Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies, whose synergy is evident on the field, whether it’s pregame or in-game. Acuña became the second-youngest player to have a 30-30 season in 2019, and his name is a popular one in predictions for 2020 NL MVP. The NL East was further well represented with World Series champions Juan Soto and Victor Robles.

There was plenty of upper-deck power to witness, as well, from Phillies teammates Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins to Yankees duo Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres. Chicago also has muscle to flex, with Javier Báez and Kris Bryant for the Cubs and Eloy Jiménez for the White Sox. Jiménez’s partner was Tim Anderson, who boasts a bit less power, though he led the Majors in batting average last season at .335.

The Padres’ duo included Fernando Tatis Jr. and a player he used to look up to and now plays beside in the team’s infield: Manny Machado. Others from the NL West included Carson Kelly and Ketel Marte of the D-backs, the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story and the Giants’ Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski.

A special exception was made for a trio, and with good reason. It’s hard to think of the young stars on the Blue Jays without grouping Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette together, as all three are sons of former Major League stars.

Along with those duos and the trio, fans got must-see highlights from plenty of other exciting young stars, including Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Eugenio Suárez, Aristides Aquino, Francisco Lindor, José Ramírez, Jorge Soler, Adalberto Mondesi, Christian Yelich, Keston Hiura, Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds, Austin Meadows, Brandon Lowe, Paul DeJong, Tommy Edman and more.