Yoan Moncada, Chicago White Sox
The raw skills have continually been there for Yoan Moncada, and 2018 was his first opportunity to play a full year in the big leagues. There were some good things that happened — he hit 17 homers, stole 12 bases, and posted a 10.3% walk rate while being worth 2.0 fWAR — but there is still some growth to be done.
As a 23-year-old, that’s partly to be expected. We all can’t take the league by storm like Mike Trout, ya know? The most glaring statistic that needs to get corrected is his strikeout rate, which settled in at 33.4% last year. However, as he’s continued accumulating plate appearances, a number of important peripherals have gone down. Moncada’s ground-ball rate, fly-ball rate, swinging-strike rate, and contact rate on strikes have all improved year over year since debuting with Boston for a short period of time in 2016.
Now with a full year of play in the big leagues under his belt, it’ll be interesting to see how he continues to adjust to opposing pitchers. The White Sox are hoping to take a significant step forward in 2019, and an equally significant step forward in Moncada’s development would be a huge help.
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