Kyle Seager, Seattle Mariners
During a time in the organization when general manager Jerry Dipoto was trading away as many veterans as possible, he couldn’t find a take for Seager after his lackluster 2018. Through 630 plate appearances, the third baseman posted a career-low marks in wRC+ (83) and fWAR (1.5) for a full season. With a hefty contract as a 31-year-old, it’s not surprising he stayed in Seattle throughout this past year.
Although Seager was limited to 105 games in 2019, he did bounce back to the tune of a 110 wRC+ and 2.9 fWAR. This was really all thanks to a big second half, as his wRC+ (78 to 129), OPS (.659 to .863) and ISO (.168 to .264) all experienced huge jumps in production.
Despite watching his quality-of-contact numbers go in the wrong direction, Seager’s BABIP jumped about 40 points between these two time periods. He also added an increased line-drive rate to it all and completely punished sinkers this year by posting a 238 wRC+ with a 13.0% walk rate and 1.9% strikeout rate (103, 5.9%, 9.6%, respectively, in 2018).
He still may not get traded, but his immediate outlook is looking better than it did last winter.
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