January 18, 2023

Minnesota Twins infielder Jose Miranda is going into his second season after coming onto the scene in 2022 and impressing. He hit .268, slugged 15 home runs, stole one base, scored 45 runs, and drove in 66 over 125 games. Still, Miranda projects as a pretty boring hitter in fantasy baseball moving forward. He only struck out 18.8% of the time and always had low strikeout rates in the minors, but he doesn't hit the ball exceptionally hard (55th-percentile average exit velocity in 2022) and has little speed, posting a 25th-percentile sprint speed. There's no reason Miranda can't be a consistent 20-homer guy, but that's likely his ceiling. The 24-year-old hardly barreled balls this season with a 6.2% rate, and his 109.4 MPH max exit velocity isn't that impressive. He also plays in a tough division to go yard in with many big outfields. Miranda's going to hit in a solid lineup but won't be much more than a 70-runs and RBI player, as Steamer projects (64 runs, 71 RBI). In real life, the Puerto Rican is a quality young bat but is just above average in four categories and a nonfactor in stolen bases. His ADP suggests otherwise, though, as Miranda's going around pick 155, ahead of more intriguing third basemen like Matt Chapman (162 ADP) and Ke'Bryan Hayes (165 ADP), as well as Anthony Rizzo (156 ADP) and Rowdy Tellez (178 ADP) at first base.--Spencer Seguin