RADIO
Willy Adames 2020 Outlook: Third Year Is The Charm For The Rays Shortstop
5 years agoWilly Adames enters his third season in the majors with the Rays and will look to continue improving his offensive production. 2019 was Adames’s first full season as a regular for the Rays, playing 152 games and setting a career-high with 20 home runs. Improvement in home runs is an easy improvement to see, but there were other statistics that show Adames’s much-improved plate skills. He showcased some improved plate discipline, lowering his strikeout rate 3.2% to 26.2%. Adames also improved his ISO from .128 to a respectable, still not elite, .164, which is his highest ISO at any level of professional baseball. He also saw nice gains in barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and an outstanding .395 xwOBAcon. Now, not everything was rosy for Adames as we saw a decrease in walk rate, average, BABIP, and wRC+. Through the good and the bad, we did notice the overall power and extra-base skills improve for Adames, while the overall ability to get on base took a hit. So which Adames do we see in 2020? We should see the Adames that continue to show extra-base hit improvements as the overall hit tool continues to improve. He is currently the 26th shortstop off the board at pick 279 and should be a nice middle-infield option come draft day.
