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Christopher Morel 2024 Fantasy Baseball Outlook: Thirty Home Run Upside Available Late In Drafts
10 months agoIn Chicago Cubs outfielder Christopher Morel's second season in the bigs, his full power potential was put on display, belting 26 HR in just 388 ABs with an elite 24.8% HR/FB%, which was eleventh best in all of baseball in 2023. The 24-year-old's 95th percentile Barrel% of 15.9% is also elite and forecasts another season of power to come in 2024. With his big authoritative hack also comes lots of swing-and-miss too, with a 65.6% Contact%, 17.1% SwStr%, 37.0% Whiff%, and 31.0% K%. Despite that, the righty was able to maintain a BB% of 8.4%, which is right around the league average and tallied a .347 WOBA with a 119 wRC+ for the year. ATC projections call for a .242-26-73-72-10 line in 2024 over 479 ABs (129 G). The versatile player started games at three different IF positions in 2023 (2B, 3B, SS) and all three OF spots, in addition to starting most of the time at DH, so if that's able to get him in the lineup more than his projection suggests then he could easily return value at his current NFBC ADP of 201. His RotoBaller rank of 189 indicates managers, especially homer-needy ones, should scoop him up earlier than his ADP.
