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Answering whether or not Mitch Haniger is worth a late-round flier in fantasy baseball is not as easy to answer as it should be. That is because we cannot predict whether or not he'll be healthy enough to play a meaningful amount of games to warrant a roster spot. We can't predict health of any player, but with Haniger, it's especially difficult.
In his eight-year major league career, he's played more than 100 games just twice due to a litany of injuries, including left/right oblique strains, ankle sprain, core abdominal surgery, and 64 games last season due to a right forearm fracture. He missed the 60-game 2020 season in its entirety to recover from multiple injuries.
Assuming health, why would you spend one of your last picks on the Mariner? Let's check out what he has to offer in 2024 assuming he can play a preponderance of games in the upcoming season.
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Mitch Haniger 2024 Fantasy Baseball Outlook
In those two seasons we mentioned above where he played more than 100 games, it was 2018 and 2021 and he played 157 games in each. Both seasons were good and in 2018 he was an All-Star:
Despite coming over to Seattle in a trade from San Francisco, those two productive seasons shown in the table are from his days in Seattle, so he's familiar with T-Mobile Park and the hitting environment, as well as all of the divisional opponents' parks. The powerful righty also has decent bat-to-ball skills, with a career Contact% of 75.1%.
Right now, RosterResource has him slotted into the sixth spot in the Mariners lineup, which should afford him plenty of RBI opportunities. He's also projected as the starting right fielder, but if the Mariners want his power production in the lineup more often than not, it's possible he gets some days at DH.
His FGDC projections have him playing a modest 126 games, hitting .235-23-68-61-2. If he's able to play more than that and get some more ABs, 25+ HR is not out of the question and he'd certainly be a usable fantasy asset. The other thing to keep in mind with Haniger's injury history is that much of it shouldn't be accredited to him being "injury prone," maybe just unlucky. In 2019, the reason for missing 96 games was due to fouling a ball off of his testicle. Last season's forearm fracture was a result of a hit-by-pitch.
Other outfielders like Tyler O'Neill, Byron Buxton, and Max Kepler are going late in drafts with similar projections and injury history, while Haniger has an NFBC ADP of 590. If you're willing to draft those players, you should be willing to draft Haniger. So, to answer the question, yes, Mitch Haniger is worth a late-round flier!
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