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ANALYSIS: Since his trade from the Angels in the offseason, C.J. Cron has solidified his spot as the Tampa first baseman, not that he has much competition. Keeping a similar K%, Cron has seen a surge in his OBP and SLG so far this season. All signs point to Cron finally hitting his potential as top-10 first baseman with power upside. If this keeps up, a .321 OBP would be his highest since 2016, and solidify the add now.
Cron broke out at the end of last year with a jump from a 56 tOPS+ in the first half to a 124 tOPS+. Most notably Cron saw this jump even while posting a close to 30% strikeout rate, up from 24% in the first half. When looking at his metrics, do not let a high K% scare you off. Cron has been more productive historically with a higher strikeout rate, which hints at a more aggressive approach paying off. Look this year to his Hard% that has spiked to 44% from a career average of 32.6%. More big swings, with harder contact, means that even with more swing and misses the approach is apparently paying off. On a struggling team with no player pushing Cron for playing time, this looks like at worst a good stash, and at best a critical power and RBI source.
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