Can Hunter Renfroe Immediately Become a Force With the San Diego Padres?

<![CDATA[The San Diego Padres aren't supposed to create many positive waves in 2017. In fact, they're expected by many to be baseball’s worst team by the time Game 162 is in the books.

With those kinds of expectations, one would assume there isn’t much on their roster to get excited about, but there is. It will be interesting to see how Wil Myers performs following an interesting 2016 campaign, but there are also a number of of top prospects slated to receive an opportunity to prove they can stick in the big leagues.

Of those players currently on the Padres’ roster, one is outfielder Hunter Renfroe, who is currently projected to be their Opening Day right fielder and hit fifth in the order behind Myers and Yangervis Solarte.

After producing an .893 OPS with 30 homers and 105 RBI in 563 Triple-A plate appearances last season, Renfroe earned a September call-up and made the most of it.

Despite just 36 plate appearances, he compiled a 213 wRC+ and .429 ISO thanks to 4 homers, 14 RBI and a 1.189 OPS. Is he ready to gain fantasy baseball stud status in 2017? That’s what Garion Thorne and I talked about on FNTSY Sports Network’s The Rotation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQz_Ooa7YZ0

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference. Advanced statistics courtesy of FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

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About Matt Musico

Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball, contributes to The Sports Daily and is also an editor for numberFire. In the past, he has also worked for FanDuel and Bleacher Report. He’s a lover of all baseball, especially the Mets.

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