New Everyday Players — Aug 29, 2023

More new everyday players incoming! Need an injury replacement? Perhaps your savior is on this list.

Jake Cave | PHI OF

First, I want to share a funny tidbit — I just checked Rotoworld to see when Cave was traded to the Phillies from the Twins and discovered he has been with the Phillies all season long! Whoops. Cave has been in and out of the lineup this year, but he has seemingly become the team’s starting first baseman against right-handed starters recently. He has only recorded 150 PAs this year, but he has clearly improved his plate skills.

First, he has reduced his SwStk% significantly, posting a single digit mark for the first time. That has helped improve his strikeout rate to a career best. He has also upped his walk rate to the second highest mark of his career, though he still doesn’t get on base enough, as he hasn’t posted a .300 OBP since 2019.

Throughout his many small sample stints, power has been his calling card. He owns a career 17.4% HR/FB rate and since last year, he has posted FB% marks over 40% to fully take advantage of that power. Unfortunately, his home run power has dwindled in recent years, as his HR/FB rate is down at just 11.1%, driven by the second lowest maxEV of his career and a single digit Barrel%. So this is supposedly a power hitter who just isn’t hitting for a whole lot of it.

The plate discipline improvement is encouraging, but it doesn’t matter all that much when there’s only slightly above average power and he continues to struggle with his BABIP. The Phillies’ home park does inflate left-handed home runs, so he’s a reasonable deep league option if you need power, but that’s really it.

Josh Palacios | PIT OF

After having started sporadically after his recall in late July, Palacios has now started seven straight, even against left-handers, despite being left-handed himself. Oh, and he has batted cleanup at times, despite owning a .271 wOBA, which is just hilarious to me. Whether that decision makes any sense or not isn’t worth arguing, but it means he’s worth looking into for as long as the team continues setting that baffling lineup order.

Palacios has recorded just 279 MLB PAs since 2021. In that time, he has rarely walked, struck out at about a league average rate, hit for below average power and posted a weak BABIP. Sounds like the perfect cleanup hitter, right?! He has been better this year than during his tiny samples in 2021 and last year, as he has reduced his strikeout rate to below 20% and has actually shown some above average power. His HR/FB rate sits at 14% and that’s backed by a respectable 109.6 MPH maxEV and 9% Barrel%. That has resulted in a .166 ISO, which is slightly more fitting for cleanup duties than his career .121 ISO is.

BABIP has been a major issue, as he sports just a .228 mark despite a low FB% and few pop-ups. His xBA suggests he’s been quite unlucky, so he shouldn’t be as much of a batting average drain over the rest of the season.

He has swiped three bases and has four now in his short career, putting him on pace for just around double digits given a full season of PAs. That’s not too bad, especially when paired with his current near 20 homer pace. With the good lineup spot, he’s worthy of a look in deep leagues, though I doubt he would make an impact in 15-team mixed and shallower.

Alika Williams | PIT SS

Since his recall in late July, Williams has earned the lion’s share of starts at shortstops, with random days off here and there. It looks pretty safe to call him the Pirates’ starting shortstop now. The team’s 25th ranked prospect had an ETA of 2025, even though he’s already 24 years old, so it might be a surprise to not only see him in the Majors, but see him starting most days.

From his scouting grades, you get a sense that this is a speedy, slick-fielding player with limited power. Do his stats back that up? Ehhh, not exactly. After showing little power in both 2021 and 2022 with single digit HR/FB rates and an ISO no greater than .136, it appears his power has spiked this year. His ISO jumped to .179 at Double-A while still with the Rays and then again to .227 at Triple-A with the Pirates organization. His HR/FB rate didn’t move at Double-A, but surged to 17.1% at Triple-A. That’s a good sign of power growth, except his maxEV was just 105.9 MPH, which is quite low. I’ve never seen a maxEV that low paired with a HR/FB rate that high. So, I’d argue that HR/FB rate was quite a fluke.

Moving on to his speed, he swiped six bases in the minors this year over about a half season’s worth of PAs, putting him on a pace of just into double digits. So he’s clearly not making a whole lot of use of that 60/60 speed on the basepaths, even though Statcast’s Sprint Speed does confirm he’s above average. Since he has never been much of a basestealer, I wouldn’t expect him to suddenly decide to start stealing.

Since the projections and his history suggest he’s not going to help in batting average, then his lack or power and unwillingness to be more of a steals threat really caps his fantasy upside. He’s an NL-Only option, and even then, I’d seek someone who stands out more in either power or speed then someone who just does a small amount of each.