December 31, 2018

Los Angeles Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons has always been known as a glove-first player, but the four-time Gold Glover has made significant strides to become more of an all-around player the last three seasons with the Halos. He's increased his RBI totals each of the last two years and had a career-high 75 RBI in 146 games in 2018. Simmons has also reached double-digit home runs each of the last two years, although his career 50.8 percent ground-ball rate caps his upside in that category. The most consistent part of his game is the fact that he's a free-swinger with a very solid career contact rate of 87.9 percent. Simmons rarely gets deep into counts, rarely walks (6.2 percent BB rate) and rarely strikes out (8.9 percent K rate). While Simmons' frequent contact and high average on balls in play have kept his average useful for fantasy owners the last three years, he's not in line to reach or surpass his career-high 17 homers from 2012 unless he starts hitting the ball in the air much more frequently. He has become more useful to fantasy owners in deep mixed leagues as a middle infielder, but Simmons has likely reached his upside at the plate as he nears 30 years old. For that reason, he's just inside the top-20 at a position that offers elite upside near the top. Simmons' home ballpark and lineup aren't doing him any favors either.--Keith Hernandez