New Everyday Players — Sep 18, 2023

Welcome to an all-Angels edition of new everyday players! Incredibly, there are currently nine hitters on the IL and all nine of them have been starters at some point this season. You can almost field a pretty darn good team with these hitters, except you’d need a catcher. Naturally, all these injuries have opened up opportunities, so let’s find out who’s starting this week for the Angels.

David Fletcher | LAA 2B

I feel like he has been the official injury replacement guy this year. Every time injuries hit, he’s eventually recalled, and then as soon as the team is healthy, he returns to Triple-A. Fletcher is the boring, “scrappy” veteran you know and love. You know, the current version of David Eckstein. Clearly the Angels love scrappy Davids.

There’s no power here, or much speed. So adding him is solely out of desperation in the hope that regular at-bats will ultimately lead to more counting stats than a guy only starting two-to-three times a week. Of course, he has historically also helped in both batting average and OBP at times, but over a two week period, anything goes. It’s kind of silly to be picking up a player now for one of those ratios, as anyone could hit a rough patch or get hot over such a small sample.

The only thing going for him right now is that he has started three start between second and third bases since his recall last Friday. It’s bizarre to me, as I can’t understand why teams out of the race don’t just automatically start their youngsters, like Kyren Paris (though he still might be a starter, but was hurt yesterday). I don’t see the point of giving Fletcher any starts, but we’ll see if Fletcher does continue to draw regular starts with Paris on the bench as our RosterResource page suggests is going to happen.

Jared Walsh | LAA 1B

He’s back! After spending time at Triple-A, the Angels rash of injuries necessitated giving Walsh another chance. He has recorded just 83 PAs this year after playing regularly the last two seasons.

With a career 19.9% HR/FB rate and about a 28-homer average over a full season, Walsh is all about power. He also may be tapping into it more this year, as he raised his FB% to 39% at Triple-A, and so far over the small MLB sample size this year, he has posted a 52.3% mark, which is quite extreme. This compares to just a 34.2% FB% over his career. For someone with his kind of power, a higher fly ball rate should benefit him.

Strikeouts have become quite an issue, though. After striking out 30.4% of the time last year, he struck out a whopping 34.7% of the time at Triple-A this year, which is worrisome given the level of competition should be weaker than in the Majors! So far over his small sample performance with the Angels, he has struck out 32.5% of the time, but that has come with a scary 17.8% SwStk%. The silver lining is he’s walking often, so assuming his balls in play start falling for hits more than they have (just a .167 BABIP right now), his value spikes in OBP leagues.

Since his recall, it appears he’ll occupy a strong side platoon role in right field. If you need power and perhaps some RBI, he’s worth adding in deeper leagues, and is even more desirable in OBP leagues, though as I said above, you really don’t need to worry about batting average and OBP potential over the small sample size that is the remainder of the season.

Brett Phillips | LAA OF

I’m not sure how I’ve missed it, but somehow journeyman Phillips, who’s now on his fifth organization since 2018, has found himself the team’s regular centerfielder. Again, I’m not sure why the team isn’t just automatically playing their youngsters every day, but it is what it is and fantasy owners should pay attention. He has started every single game, between center field and right field, since his recall on September 6.

Phillips is excellent defensively, which is why he continues to find himself in lineups despite a career .276 wOBA. But that doesn’t mean he should be completely ignored by fantasy owners. He has that combination of power and speed we love. It just comes with some flaws. For his career, he has averaged about 21 home runs and 27 steals over a full season. That’s pretty darn good! His maxEV is unimpressive, and Barrel% just mediocre, but he hits enough fly balls and has somehow managed a career 16.8% HR/FB rate, despite the weak Statcast metrics. He has also been an excellent basestealer, swiping 39 bases in 45 tries for a near 87% success rate and has already stolen three bases this year in just 52 PAs.

The weakness in his offensive profile is his strikeout rate. He sports an ugly career 38.1% mark, though that has come with a 14.3% SwStk%, which doesn’t normally result in such a high strikeout rate. He is also willing to take a walk, so he’s another who gets a nice boost in OBP leagues, though that merely makes him less of a negative in the ratio, as opposed to more of a positive!

Since he’s sporting a .353 wOBA right now and has started every game since his recall, it would be a surprise if he’s suddenly demoted to bench duty. What’s also interesting is he has even started against two left-handed starters, so he’s not even in a platoon! He looks like an ideal pickup in deep leagues the rest of the way that has very likely flown under the radar.