Wil Myers, San Diego Padres
In his first three seasons with the Padres, Myers racked up two 20-20 seasons. The first occurrence in 2016 was more productive from an overall standpoint — he slugged 28 homers and swiped 28 bags on his way to 3.5 fWAR.
Since then, it’s been hard for him to stay healthy, his strikeout rate has climbed, his wRC+ has dropped, and his fWAR has been a little too close to 0.0. Through 291 plate appearances in 2019, Myers is slashing .217/.314/.402 with 12 homers, 27 RBI, and a 91 wRC+, which susses out to a 0.2 fWAR heading into the All-Star break.
It’s tough seeing these numbers when it’s paired with a 47.7% hard-hit rate. However, with that number also comes a 21.2% soft-hit rate (on track to be a career worst) and an 18.0% infield-fly rate, which negates the gains he’s made thus far in fly-ball rate (28.9% in ’18, 34.7% in ’19).
When Myers signed his six-year, $83 million deal with San Diego, he was a franchise building block. But since then, he’s moved around the diamond while the team has also brought Eric Hosmer and Manny Machado aboard. And it’s worth noting that Myers’ two most healthy and productive seasons came when he was manning first base.
Under contract through 2022 with an average annual value of $14 million and some past track record of success, there could potentially be a market for him. Judging from how things have gone since he signed this deal with the Padres, Myers could really use a fresh start.
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