Eugenio Suarez, Cincinnati Reds
The Reds are fascinating based off the handful of win-now moves they’ve made this winter. Since they don’t have a legitimate option to play center field after non-tendering Billy Hamilton, top prospect Nick Senzel is going to get a look over the next month or so.
Why wouldn’t Cincy just leave one of their most valuable minor leaguers at his natural position of third base? Well, that’s because Eugenio Suarez is there, under contract until 2024, and has continually made strides in the batter’s box.
Check out the three-year progression Suarez has been on since 2016 (when he received his first full season’s worth of plate appearances):
Among third basemen who qualified for the batting title (20 total), Suarez’s wRC+ ranked sixth, along with having the fourth-most homers and the seventh-highest fWAR.
He also must be taking notes from teammate Joey Votto in a couple departments. The 2018 season was the second consecutive year in which his walk rate finished above 10.0%, but it was his batted-ball profile that took a huge leap. His soft-hit rate fell dramatically (20.7% in ’17 to 8.4% in ’18) while his hard-hit rate spiked (33.8% to 48.6%). He hit line drives, ground balls, and fly balls at the same consistency as 2017, but his infield-fly rate went from 11.0% (a career-worst mark) to 2.8% (a career-best mark).
At a position that’s stacked with young, elite talent, it’s easy for Suarez to be forgotten, but he did finish 18th in NL MVP voting in 2018, so it’s not as if nobody is noticing the current trajectory he’s on.
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