Didi Gregorius, SS, New York Yankees
Gregorius entered Wednesday’s action with a .265/.329/.477 triple slash and a 115 wRC+ in 466 plate appearances, which doesn’t look very different from what he did in 2017 (.287/.318/.478 with a 107 wRC+). However, his season-long stats only look like this because he went on the ultimate roller coster between April and May.
The Yankees’ shortstop literally went from one of baseball’s best hitters in April (197 wRC+) to literally the worst in May (-1 wRC+). Outside of this rough month, though, he’s been fantastic. Gregorius followed that lackluster performance with a 116 wRC+ in June, 118 in July, and is currently sitting at 149 so far in August.
Two major improvements he’s sustained also work hand in hand. His 8.6% walk rate is nearly twice as high as last year’s rate (4.4%), while his 35.3% hard-hit rate is leaps and bounds better than 2017, where he actually had a higher soft-hit rate (24.4% to 23.1%).
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