October is when some baseball players become household names. In the case of Guardians’ slugger Jhonkensy Noel, he might now have a household nickname. That’s because Noel, aptly known as Big Christmas, came up with one of the biggest swings of the 2024 MLB playoffs on Thursday night against the Yankees.
With the Guardians trailing 5-3 in ALCS Game 3 (and 2-0 in the series) and down to their final out, manager Stephen Vogt called on Noel to pinch-hit. Noel was facing Yankees closer Luke Weaver — who has been terrific in 2024 and in these playoffs. Lane Thomas was on second after a hard-hit double. But the run that mattered was Noel.
Noel, who stands at 6-foot-3, 250 pounds, earned himself a trot around the bases after launching a 1-0 changeup 404 feet. Take a look at Big Christmas’ game-tying home run:
The Guardians won the game in the 10th inning as David Fry hit a walk-off home run.
Noel, a 23-year-old rookie outfielder, made his MLB debut this year on June 26. He homered in three of his first eight major-league games and slugged 13 dingers in the regular season.
We here at CBS Sports listed him as one of 10 potential playoff breakout players ahead of this October. Here’s what we wrote:
Noel has a few factors working in his favor. First and foremost, his nickname is “Big Christmas.” More importantly (we suppose): he can hit the season’s greetings out of a baseball. While you wouldn’t know it if you only looked at his average exit velocity (around 89 mph), he boasts as much muscle as anyone in the sport. To wit, Noel has recorded two batted balls that cleared 115 mph at the big-league level. Down in Triple-A, he maxed out with a 118.4 mph double back in May. Only three qualified batters hit a ball harder than that this season: Shohei Ohtani, Giancarlo Stanton, and Oneil Cruz. That’s fine company to keep. Noel has his faults — he’s prone to striking out and he seldom walks — but he’ll be a made man if he gets into one this October.
Noel was just 1 for 15 in his first six playoff games without an extra-base hit before his Game 3 heroics.
Despite the impact of his home run, Noel said it was “nothing special.”
“It’s the same sensation in a regular game and you have to have the same approach,” he said after the game. “We have a lot of games left ahead of us, and that’s the focus, to get the same sensation when you hit the ball.”
