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Willy Adames 2020 Outlook: Third Year Is The Charm For The Rays Shortstop
Willy 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.
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