New Everyday Players — Sep 20, 2023

Today will be a shorter version of my dive into new everyday players, with a pair, rather than a trio. However, one name should bring fond memories of the recent past.

Jo Adell | LAA OF

Remember him?! The former top prospect, last ranked as the team’s best and ninth overall back in 2020, is back from the IL. The Angels have really struggled to remain patient with him, but they have no excuse this time given their rash of injuries. If he’s not starting every day over the rest of the season, someone needs to find out what is going on in the organization!

Still just 24-year-olds, Adell has essentially amassed one full season of MLB at-bats, but spread over three years, beginning with his debut in 2020. There’s no getting past the fact that he has been a disappointment so far. He sports just a .272 career wOBA, driven by tons of strikeouts (35% strikeout rate), few walks (4.7% walk rate), and shockingly disappointing power (.150 ISO, 12.7% HR/FB rate), despite 50/70 Game and 70/70 Raw Power scouting grades. For me, that’s hardly a large enough sample size to give up on.

At Triple-A this year, his skills were on full display. He posted a 28.2% HR/FB rated, actually the third straight time he has posted a mark of at least that level at Triple-A, and an elite .313 ISO (he has posted a .300+ mark each of the last three stints as well). Oh, and his maxEV there this year was an absurd 118.4 MPH. That would rank him fifth in all of baseball out of 1,432 players that recorded at least one ball in play. So yeah, he’s got the power. He also posted a 44% FB%, so he’s fully taking advantage of that power by hitting lots of balls in the air.

That combo of HR/FB rate and FB% resulted in a 650 PA pace of 47 home runs! Would that be something you’re interested in? He even improved his strikeout rate to an acceptable rate, while his walk rate sat in double digits for the second straight time at Triple-A. He clearly has nothing left to prove at Triple-A, so it’s gotta be sink or swim time.

Given the real potential to knock out a bunch of dingers over the remainder of the season, he’s as good a pickup as it gets if you seek home runs. As I typed this, I even put in a waiver claim in my local 12-team mixed league that I am likely out of the money in, but still have an inkling of hope in. So go get Adell and hope some of that former prospect potential finally shines through.

Logan Porter | KC C

Salvador Perez was placed on the 7-day concussion injured list on Monday, which opens a starting catcher spot in Kansas City. Porter is already 28 years old and failed to rank on the team’s prospect list, but a starting catcher is a starting catcher, and we all need catchers, especially in deep leagues or if you’re a Perez owner (I am).

In the minors, he has shown some interesting skills that includes some average to above average power, along with some serious plate patience. First, let’s talk power. He has posted double digit HR/FB rates everywhere he’s played since 2019, though his ISO has slid at each successive stop as well. He also posted just a 107.8 MPH maxEV this year, so he clearly shouldn’t be expected to be the type of power guy he looked in 2019 and 2021. Still, he looks like at least a 10-15 homer guy over a full season.

The walks! He has walked at at least a 13.4% everywhere he has played, including a crazy 19.2% mark during his first taste of Triple-A last year. He has posted SwStk% that have hovered in the low double digits, and his strikeout rates are likely a bit higher than you would expect due to passivity, though that’s just a guess. His high walk rate likely gives him a value boost in OBP leagues.

His BABIP has been all over the map, as low as .291, posted at Triple-A this year, to as high as .404, with three marks between .380 and .397. His batted ball distributions don’t make it obvious how he’s achieving the high BABIP, so it’s tough to gauge his true talent level here. The best guess is he’s not going to help in batting average, but might be respectable in OBP.

Though he doesn’t exactly elicit excitement as a potential Perez replacement, he doesn’t seem like a complete non-factor as a fantasy contributor. Consider him in deep leagues if you’re dealing with a short-term Perez loss.