February 29, 2020

Kyle Seager enjoyed a solid but injury-shortened 2019 season, and the 32-year-old should be expected to have a decent 2020. Importantly, Seager seems to have put his poor 2018 — posted a career-worst .221/.273/.673 slash line — behind him. In 2019, Seager got his chase rate back down to 27.6%, his o-contact rate back up to 66.9%, and his barrel rate back up to 8.4%. He accomplished this even with a hand injury that may have negatively affected his performance. Struggles on pitches outside of the strike zone (63% o-contact rate) and a low 5.6% barrel rate were two of the biggest drags on Seager’s 2018 performance, so his bounceback appears to have been well supported. As a result, Seager should again be expected to post an OPS between .750 and .800 in 2020. Interestingly, Seager had an unusually pronounced platoon split last season, with an OPS more than 200 points higher against lefties than righties. Seager’s diminished performance against right-handers was partially due to luck (his xwOBA was 30 points higher than his wOBA). This should little effect on his value in 2020 considering his .334 xwOBA versus righties was still better than league average. Overall, Seager appears to be back to his pre-2018 strength, making him a relatively safe bet to produce for fantasy owners. That makes Seager a bit of a bargain at his 313 ADP, where he should outperform many of his peers while offering a high floor.--Sam Chinitz