January 4, 2019

Fantasy owners thought that they knew what to expect from Dee Gordon leading into 2018, as he was a .308 hitter with 60 stolen bases for the Marlins in 2017. While his batting average has yo-yo'd a bit in his career, he showed that he was a .290 hitter and that whatever soft hit issues that he had would be mitigated by his speed. Furthermore, he was traded to the Mariners who, while they did not have as good of a lineup as the Marlins, would also give him an opportunity in the outfield. The combination of speed, average, and multi-positional eligibility had Gordon coming off of the board as early as the third-round coming into 2018, but his .268 batting average and 30 stolen bases were a massive disappointment. In fact, both were career-lows (minimum of 325 at-bats) and, in a lineup where he was expected to lead off and score runs, he only scored 62 runs. Even though he had poor results in 2018, Gordon did have a career-best 20.4% hard hit ball rate, his ground-ball rate was only 55.2% (career average of 57.8%), and had a 22.4% line drive rate. It is easy to see that a lot of issues came from his BABIP dropping 50 points (from .354 to .304), possibly from his fly ball rate jumping three points. It is tough to imagine that Gordon has an average in the .260s once again in 2019, as he is known for his speed and average. If he does not have an average that approaches .300, which he has a demonstrated ability to do, he has very little value. Look at Gordon as a bounce-back candidate for 2019 with potential for a .300 batting average and 40 or more stolen bases at the top of the Mariners lineup.--Chris Zolli