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Neil Walker In A Good Spot To Be A Sleeper
7 years agoNew York Yankees second baseman Neil Walker has been a consistent performer since 2010, but it still took him a while to find a home with the Yankees. Walker played for the Mets and the Brewers in 2017, posting a .265 average with 14 home runs and 49 RBI. While those statistics do not seem great, he also had a .409 on-base percentage in 38 games with the Brewers and also had 23 home runs in 2016. He also dealt with a leg injury in 2017, leading to only 111 games played, marking the second straight season where he played less than 115 games (113 in 2016). Though his fly-ball rate continued to be relatively muted (38 percent, as opposed to his 43 percent mark for his Mets career), Walker finished respectably, batting .267 with four home runs and eight doubles in his 38 games as a Brewer. While those rates would have fit right in with his stats from his Pirate years, the rise in his walk rate was unmistakable. Walker had never registered a double-digit walk rate in a full season, but during his brief tenure in Milwaukee, he posted a 19 percent rate. Now with the Yankees, Walker could still be a solid option as a middle infielder in deeper formats.
