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Austin Meadows 2021 Outlook: Five-Category Contributor at a Discount
4 years agoTampa Bay Rays outfielder Austin Meadows was viewed as a fantasy stud and top-50 player entering 2020. He broke out in a big way during his first full season in Tampa, batting .291 with 33 HR, 89 RBI, 83 R, and 12 SB in 2019. Like numerous other players in 2020, however, Meadows was set back by COVID and injuries. Meadows first landed on the IL a week before the season began. He got off to a sluggish start and never truly got going. It culminated with a terrible September in which he hit .140 with just one homer, four RBI, and one steal over 50 at-bats before ending the year on the injured list with an oblique strain.
There is still promise that the same talented 25-year-old is there, ready to recover from a miserable season. It's easy to simply dismiss 2020 as an outlier but there is also the reality that Meadows has one productive full season under his belt as a pro. This risk is baked into an ADP of 92 overall, making him the 25th outfielder taken in NFBC drafts. His upside is greater than that of players being drafted ahead of him such as Lourdes Gurriel and Charlie Blackmon, so he is worth pulling the trigger on a few picks earlier.
