3 years agoThomas clawed his way out of obscurity in 2021, turning things on in a big way once he came over to Washington from St. Louis in the Jon Lester trade. In 206 PAs with the Nationals Thomas slashed .270/.364/.489 with seven homers and four steals. That strong performance should give Thomas a crack at an every day role in 2022, and the 26-year-old has flashed some strong raw tools that suggest he could be a solid fantasy contributor. Perhaps the most alluring of Thomas's skills is his speed, which ranked in the 93rd percentile among major leaguers last season. He swiped six bags in 77 games last season, four of which came with the Nationals. Washington manager Dave Martinez has shown a willingness to let fast players run if successful, as we've seen with Trea Turner and Victor Robles in past seasons, so if Thomas can be efficient on the basepaths he should get the chance to run. 15 to 20 stolen bases isn't out of the questions should Thomas stay in a regular role all season. Evoking the name Victor Robles may scare you, but Thomas is more than just speed. He absolutely cranked the ball last season, with an average exit velocity of 91 MPH, a 12.3-degree launch angle, and 45.7% hard hit rate. With batted ball numbers this good, it's surprising that he had just a .232 xBA and .319 xwOBA in 2021. It's normally rather simple to reverse engineer batted ball numbers to determine how Statcast's expected stats were calculated, but not in this case. With this average exit velocity, launch angle, and Thomas's speed, he could certainly outperform his expected stats from last season. Altogether, he looks like a nice bet based on skills in the later rounds of drafts.--Elliott Baas - RotoBaller