Fantasy Baseball: 6 Hitters With a Lot to Prove in 2018
Travis d'Arnaud, C, New York Mets
If we're looking at his 2017 season in a vacuum, New York Mets catcher Travis d'Arnaud did improve from the year prior. It was probably also because his performance in 2016 couldn't have been much worse. Baby steps, though, right?
D'Arnaud's wRC+ improved from 74 to 91, his ISO jumped from .076 to .198, and his fWAR went from 0.1 to 0.8. However, we're still waiting for him to get within an earshot of his 2015 season, which included a 130 wRC+, a .218 ISO, and 2.3 fWAR.
This past year started great and ended well, but it was the four months in between that was a problem. Check out how his OPS, ISO, and wRC+ changed during these periods.
| 2017 | PA | OPS | ISO | wRC+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | 59 | .833 | .302 | 113 |
| May-August | 247 | .639 | .130 | 67 |
| September | 70 | .999 | .359 | 157 |
That's not exactly how he was hoping the year would go, but at least there were some bright spots at the plate. The one encouraging thing for his upside is that his fly-ball rate never dipped below 34.8% in any month, while his hard-hit rate was at least 32.6% in every month except September, which was clearly his best month of production despite a 24.1% hard-hit rate. Baseball, man.
Entering his second year of arbitration, the backstop is running out of time to make good on his offensive upside. The positive thing is he'll be extra motivated by some competition in the form of fellow catcher Kevin Plawecki, who posted 137 wRC+ and .378 wOBA through 90 second-half plate appearances after his own subpar performances in the batter's box.
