Earlier this week I took a have a look at three pitchers that impressed in a small pattern, and now I’ll flip it over to have a look at three hitters. Every of those gamers are rookies who stood out throughout their quick time within the Present, and have a comparatively low draft inventory.
Otto Lopez
I’ll be sincere, I hadn’t heard of Otto Lopez till researching this text. The 25-year-old Dominican rookie has bounced across the league a bit, initially within the Toronto system earlier than being bought by the Giants, then claimed off waivers by the Marlins to grow to be their beginning 2B. The Marlins had been a catastrophe this yr, however Lopez could emerge as a silver lining, main the group in fWAR—albeit with only a measly 2.3. His slash line of .268/.311/.373 isn’t very thrilling, however narrowing in on the final two months of the season, Lopez hit .313/.368/.441— that are some eyebrow-raising figures, particularly contemplating he additionally swiped 12 luggage over that stretch.
Lopez is a glove-first, contact-heavy infielder, which supplies me flashbacks to the time I attempted to name Mikael Garcia a star. Oops. Nonetheless, the place Garcia floundered at pitches within the coronary heart of the zone, Lopez’s +6 Run Worth within the Coronary heart of the zone signifies that he’s able to coping with big-league pitching, and has a strong plate strategy in addition.
Hardly showstopping, however Lopez makes usually good selections, which is encouraging for a hitter who depends on their contact greater than the rest. His chase price is moderately excessive—at 32% over the yr—and his stroll price, at simply 5.8%, is unappealing. Nonetheless, if we slender in on these final two months of the season, Lopez ticked his chase price right down to 30% and his stroll price as much as 8% – that are far more palatable numbers if he can maintain them into subsequent season.
He has minimal energy and a really excessive floor ball price—which doesn’t encourage a lot confidence—nevertheless, when he’s in a position to generate line drives his aggressive plate strategy has been profitable for him. Whereas Lopez virtually by no means hits fly balls (only a 24% FB price on the yr), however he had a 26.8% LD price the final two months of the season—tenth in MLB over that stretch. Lopez has good pace and uncooked contact skill, so his ceiling might be outlined if he can enhance his year-long stroll price and high quality of contact. In that case, Lopez may probably slot into the leadoff function for the Marlins, making him a way more interesting fantasy candidate.
The important thing factor for Lopez is his place (2B) which—apart from Altuve and Marte—has been fairly dismal for years now. That provides Lopez a extra interesting upside when contemplating steals and ratios. In normal 5×5 leagues, Lopez may realistically supply a .280 season with 25+ steals, which makes him much more interesting than if he performed, say, SS. In deeper conventional 5×5 leagues, Lopez may present a variety of worth relative to his ADP.
Or he may very well be horrible. I don’t know. Predicting the longer term is tough. However I like Lopez’s probabilities.
Jung Hoo Lee
Okay, so possibly this doesn’t actually match the “sleeper” tag, however that is my article and I wish to write about Jung Hoo Lee, dangit!
In my protection, Lee completely suits the factors of getting a small MLB pattern. In any case, he solely had 158 plate appearances earlier than a shoulder damage ended his season. Lee is an attention-grabbing participant to mission wanting ahead. He’s simply 26 years outdated, with a superb KBO profession that yielded a 9-figure contract final offseason. Nonetheless, in his MLB debut, Lee did not be very productive, hitting .262 however slugging simply .331. Moreover, Lee is now coming off of two seasons which were minimize quick because of damage – first a damaged ankle in 2023 and now a torn labrum.
Lee is a lefty who performs in San Francisco, which isn’t mixture for somebody who lacks uncooked energy. Thus, his outlook might be dependent virtually solely on his contact skill—which is fortunately one thing Lee has in spades:
As a lot as we love energy and plate self-discipline, excelling in touch skill this a lot offers Lee a hitter profile that’s lopsided, however nonetheless very robust—as course of+ signifies:
In fact, the small pattern right here makes stats like course of+ yield outcomes that needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, Lee constantly graded out very strongly, largely because of treading water along with his energy and swing selections whereas excelling in touch.
Lee’s plate strategy exhibits promise as effectively. His IPA% is within the 97th percentile, and it shouldn’t be a shock that Lee is a very robust out. His whiff% is simply 9.9%, and he hardly ever will get into two-strike counts within the first place—99th percentile on pitches in 2-strike counts.
xwOBA agrees. His .327 xwOBA is considerably greater than his .284 wOBA. There’s so much to love in Lee’s projection wanting ahead, far exceeding what you could anticipate from a hitter with an 83 wRC+.
Lee will possible hit leadoff once more for the Giants subsequent yr, though I’d be apprehensive to anticipate Lee to be a steals risk. Regardless, Lee confirmed in his small MLB pattern that he could be a high quality big-league hitter, regardless of this not being mirrored on the floor degree stats. I’m prepared to guess that Lee might be taken very late in redraft leagues, no matter format, due to his damage and supposed poor efficiency final season. Nonetheless, Lee has loads of potential to be a top quality sleeper for AVG leagues.
Iván Herrera
Catchers had a bizarre yr in 2024. Adley Rutschmann was dismal after getting injured, Salvador Perez had an enormous bounceback yr, Austin Wells got here out of nowhere to be one of many perfect within the league, and the Contreras brothers firmly established their dominance. But it was Willson Contreras’ associate that will have impressed essentially the most.
Iván Herrera was stupendous. In 72 video games with the Cardinals, the 24-year-old hit .301/.372/.428 for a 127 WRC+, some of the productive offensive seasons of any rookie this yr. It’s a becoming slash line for somebody with such a Mauer-esque swing:
Mauer’s swing is flipped right here, therefore why it seems like he’s taking off towards third base (bonus factors when you can guess the pitcher right here). Nonetheless, these two swings look very related. So do their stats:
