4 Fantasy Baseball Hitters Who Were Busts in 2022

Brenton looks at four fantasy baseball hitters who were busts in the 2022 season and looks ahead to see if they can improve in 2023.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing in fantasy baseball -- aside from injuries -- is drafting a player chock-full of upside, only to have him fall flat on his face. It happens every season to players of all ages. The group of consistent, above-average producers is simply not as extensive as many think.

A 'bust' is a relative term based on expectations. Sometimes it means falling out of the top 20 and other times it means failing to finish in the top 200. Preseason expectations are the foundation for whether a player lives up to his billing or is labeled a bust at the season's end. A bust does not exist without expectation.

As we approach the beginning of 2023 Spring Training, let's hit the rewind button and look back at 2022. More specifically four hitters who failed to live to or even approach their expectations in the 2022 campaign.

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Spencer Torkelson, 1B, Detroit Tigers

Excuse me for picking on a 22-year-old rookie out of the gate but Spencer Torkelson pulled off an absolute face-plant in his first season in the bigs.

Regarded as the best college hitter to come out of the draft since Mark Teixeira in 2001 and (relatively) fresh off of breaking Barry Bonds' home run record at Arizona State, Torkelson arrived in Detroit with plenty of hype and presumed thunder in his bat. After all, he hit 30 home runs across three minor-league levels and 121 games in 2021, setting the stage for a big first season with the Tigers.

Instead, Torkelson hit eight HR with a tiny .117 isolated power across 110 big-league games in 2022. He hit just .203 while his 76 wRC+ told us his bat was 24% less productive than the MLB average. Woof.

One thing Torkelson did do well in his first season was generate walks at a healthy 9.2% mark, good for the 63rd percentile of major league hitters. However, check out Torkelson's summer months before his demotion to Triple-A Toledo. He received 128 plate appearances between June and July but his performance forced a demotion to the minors.

The good news is Torkelson returned from the minors to post a more respectable .167 ISO and 95 wRC+ in September. Furthermore, he also ranked in the league's 78th percentile in average exit velocity and 56th in barrel rate. The new, hitter-friendly dimension changes to Comerica Park's outfield distances and wall heights might help, too.

While 2023 presents a bounce-back opportunity, Torkelson was a major bust in his rookie campaign.

Bobby Dalbec, 1B, Boston Red Sox

Another young (ish) first baseman makes the list as Bobby Dalbec took more than a few steps back in his second full big-league season after bursting onto the scene with authority.

You know, the same Bobby Dalbec who became the first player in the modern era to collect a five-game HR streak within his first 10 MLB games.

Dalbec would hit eight HR in just 23 games in his age-25 debut season while posting a .959 OPS in the process. He proved it was no fluke the following season as he launched 25 more long balls, giving him 33 HR across his first 156 games at the big-league level.

And then 2022 happened. Dalbec homered just 12 times while his ISO slipped to .155, almost 100 points below his 2021 figure of .254. He hit just .215 with an 80 wRC+ across 117 games and wound up losing playing time to prospect Tristan Cases later in the season.

Through all of this, Dalbec has endured serious strikeout issues in his brief big-league tenure. He's the not-so-proud owner of a sky-high 34.9% strikeout rate and ranked in the league's second percentile in K% and fifth in whiff% a season ago.

Unlike Tork, Dalbec will need to scratch and claw for playing time with the 2023 Red Sox. Casas is going to be the full-time first baseman barring a collapse of his own while Rafael Devers remains at the hot corner where Dalbec spent 140 defensive innings last season. Steamer projects just 142 plate appearances for Dalbec in his age-28 season.

What once looked like a fruitful MLB career fell off a cliff in 2022 with no definitive end in sight.

Yasmani Grandal, C, Chicago White Sox

Now to a veteran who has been an absolute rock of consistency throughout his big league career. That is, until the 2022 season.

After posting a wRC+ of at least 114 in four straight seasons and coming off a career-best of 158 in 2021, there wasn't any reason to doubt Grandal as a source of power and on-base ability. With a career .198 ISO -- a figure he had exceeded in five of his previous six seasons -- Grandal would be a steady source of pop for fantasy managers while his on-base skills were in the top-tier of catching options.

The dumpster fire of 2022 was blind-siding. Grandal appeared in just 99 games as he missed time with a knee injury, but he hit only five HR with 15 runs and 27 RBI across 376 trips to the plate. Additionally, his ISO cratered to a ghastly .067 mark and his OBP shrank to just .301. The end result was a 68 wRC+ that ranked 22nd of the 24 catchers who made at least 350 trips to the plate and 232nd of 246 hitters with that sample size.

A switch-hitter, Grandal's struggles can almost solely be attributed to his dog's-breakfast work against right-handed pitching. Despite a complete lack of power, his bat was productive against lefties on the back of a massive walk rate.

That's correct. His bat was 53% (!) worse than the league average off of righties. He recorded six extra-base hits off of righties across 253 at-bats and 283 plate appearances. Not cool.

Coupling the issue was his defense, which graded poorly for the second straight season. Regarded as one of the league's premier defensive catchers, Grandal was worth -5 Defensive Runs Saved, as per FanGraphs, while his pop time to second base ranked in the first percentile, as per Statcast. Statcast gave him slightly favorable framing metrics in the 55th percentile.

At 34, is the beginning of the end? Not likely. It's worth noting Steamer projects a solid rebound, albeit with diminished playing time and power closer to the league average. While it's safe to say he's well past his days as an upper-tier catching option, his 2022 season was shockingly terrible on the heels of a monstrous 2021 campaign.

Joey Gallo, OF, New York Yankees & Los Angeles Dodgers

Now with the Minnesota Twins ahead of the 2023 season, the 2022 campaign was a struggle for Joey Gallo, who was certainly a bust between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.

When you annually hit around the Menzona Line with massive strikeout rates, down seasons are increasingly likely. Indeed, the 2022 season was not an outlier for Gallo as he also scuffled during the shortened 2020 campaign as well.

Gallo became public enemy No. 1 in the Bronx when he slashed just .159/.282/.339 with 12 HR across 82 games. Once acquired for a postseason run in 2021, Gallo was instead traded away at the 2022 deadline to the Dodgers where he also struggled overall despite increased power. Gallo hit just .162 with a .671 OPS across 44 games in Dodger blue.

All told, the 29-year-old hit .160 with 19 HR, three stolen bases, a .657 OPS, and 85 wRC+ across 126 games in 2022. He collected all of 48 runs and 47 RBI in the process. Making matters worse was a 39.8% K% that was not only a career-worst but by far the worst in baseball among 205 players with a minimum of 400 plate appearances.

The 2022 season marked the third straight time Gallo had hit under .200, but at least he hit 38 homers in 2021. Gallo's 151 home runs between the 2017-2021 seasons ranked sixth in baseball, just one behind Aaron Judge. We at least expected more light-tower power from Gallo last season but once he was unable to deliver that with a career-low 19 round-trippers, he was an all-around bust.

The good news? Check out the percentile rankings when it comes to hard-hit and barrel rates from a season ago.

Impressive stuff. Perhaps his new situation in Minnesota outside of the bright lights of New York and Los Angeles can help Gallo get back to his ceiling in 2023, but man was 2022 ever a cringe-worthy journey, especially in the Bronx.

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