Yuli Gurriel, Houston Astros
Although he’s been an asset on offense the past couple years prior to 2019, Gurriel really came into his own this year for the Astros. Case in point is his overall power production. Not only is his .243 ISO a new single-season career high, but the 31 homers he hit in 612 plate appearances doubled what he did from 2017-18 (31 in 1,137 plate appearances).
Of those 31 dingers, 17 came in the second half despite accruing just under 100 fewer plate appearances compared to the first half. He was performing close to his career norms prior to the All-Star break with a 109 wRC+, but that number went all the way up to 163 following the midsummer classic.
Gurriel has also proved to be an equal-opportunity masher this past year. He saw six different pitches at least 125 times (four-seamer, sinker, slider, changeup, curveball, cutter). His lowest wRC+ against any of those pitches was 109 against the changeup, and nothing else was below 124.
Most of this production came in July (237 wRC+) and August (185 wRC+) before he came back down to reality in September (82). He hasn’t necessarily gotten hot in the postseason, either, evidenced by his .229/.255/.333 line through 51 plate appearances. However, he has collected 10 RBI, while his three-run homer on Saturday night put Houston in the driver’s seat for virtually all of their Game 6 matchup against the New York Yankees in the ALCS before Jose Altuve‘s heroics.
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