February 16, 2021

While the power was still evident for Miguel Sano last year, there was nothing else encouraging about his 2020 performance. Even the OBP appeal was lost, as he fashioned a miserable .278 number. Sano led the Majors with an incredibly outrageous 43.9% strikeout rate, which was a new low even for him. Dealing with some COVID-19 issues certainly did not help, as Sano had just one hit in his first 17 at-bats. He also finished with a whimper, hitting .148 in September/October. His O-Contact% fell to 36.5 from 42.8. When Sano did make contact, though, the results were still impressive, as he continued to rank among the very best in the league in Exit Velocity (95.2) and Hard Hit Rate (57.3). He also still ranked among the best in Barrel% (22.9) and xWOBACON (,532). Like Ivan Drago, anything he hit, he destroyed, The issue was obviously that he simply did not hit enough, as an increase in Launch Angle from 15.9 to a career-high 20.2 yielded continued explosive results with much less frequency. Sano's ADP of 188 makes sense, as you will get very good power and hopefully less of a pure basement type of BA this season, but with his propensity to not make contact so often, you simply have to pay the BA cost for the pop. If the walk rate (8.8) returns to prior levels he can bounce back from the OBP perspective.--Scott Engel - RotoBaller