Franmil Reyes

Reyes has proven to be a reliable power producer, posting two 30-homer seasons by the close of his age-25 season. He's backed that with a 94th percentile mark in barrel rate in two separate campaigns, suggesting he could become one of the more prolific and consistent power hitters in the game for seasons to come. However, to take an additional step forward, he'll have to overcome two particular shortcomings in his profile. First, he has consistently shown a relatively heavy groundball lean, as his 36 percent flyball rate in 2021 represents a career high. In addition, Reyes' strikeout rate ballooned to a 32 percent clip -- the worst mark of his career -- which is enough to call his ability to maintain a solid batting average into question. Overall, Reyes is a valuable fantasy contributor because he has a stable power skillet, just don't expect a huge leap forward until he finds a way to lift the ball more.

Expectations for Reyes' power production were sky high in 2020 as he was coming off a season in which he smashed 37 home runs. He still showcased power regularly in 59 games, connecting for 66 batted balls with a 95-mph exit velocity or better -- good for 39th out of 257 qualified batters -- and a maximum exit velocity of 114.7 mph that placed him among the likes of Bryce Harper and Ronald Acuna. However, several aspects of his profile prevented a bigger jump forward. Common to many sluggers, Reyes struggled to make consistent contact by racking up a 16.6% swinging-strike rate and a 28.6 K%. More confounding was Reyes' groundball rate, which reached 50.3% in 2020. That will be something that needs to change for Reyes to reach his 45-plus home run upside. Reyes is now UTIL-only in most formats entering his age-26 season.

Reyes slugged 37 homers in just 548 plate appearances, but also fanned 28.5% of the time. A 99th percentile average exit velocity helped generate an average flyball distance of 349.4 feet, the sixth longest among hitters with at least 450 plate appearances. While Reyes may be able to hit the ball out of any yard, his best position is designated hitter. This isn't a problem after the Indians acquired Reyes from the Padres last summer. So long as Reyes continues to hit right-handers with authority (30 of his homers came in this scenario), he'll be in the lineup nearly every day, save for road interleague contests. Those with Reyes on their dynasty or keeper league roster, enjoy the current outfield eligibility; it may not be this way next season. If you can buffer a low batting average, Reyes is a great source of surprisingly cheap power as the market hasn't yet caught on to his potential.

A big, powerful corner outfielder, Reyes successfully kicked the door down by mid-May, having hit 14 homers in his first 35 games with Triple-A El Paso. He got off to a bit of a rocky start in the majors, but once Reyes settled in, he was excellent. Over the final two months of the season, he hit .318/.385/.548 with six doubles and 10 homers in 49 games (157 at-bats). His 28.1% strikeout rate for the season is a bit of an eyesore, but his K-rate during that stretch run was just 21.8%. While regression to his 29.6% HR/FB should be expected, Reyes has borderline elite raw power, so it wouldn't be surprising if his mark were still over 20% in 2019. The only real question about Reyes in 2019 is playing time. He graded out as a poor defender in the corner and he's coming off a torn meniscus in late November. We'll bet that Reyes is a regular to start, but if he doesn't improve against righties (.247/.298/.449), he could be relegated to a short-side platoon role.