Trey Mancini - (1B, OF, BAL) – Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: Trey Mancini was gaining more playing time as the wore on and the injury to Chris Davis has served to seal his role as an everyday player for the Orioles. He has taken advantage of that, posting a 1.105 OPS in the month of June. In fact, this compares rather favorably to another rookie receiving plenty of hype in Cody Bellinger, who has posted a 1.138 OPS for the month.

His profile suggests he won’t be keeping quite this torrid pace moving forward, as his .321 average is bound to fall as his .396 BABIP regresses. On the other hand, his average also shouldn’t plummet to a detrimental level as he has done a relatively good job of limiting his strikeout rate to 27%.

Meanwhile, Mancini’s power metrics present mixed signals. On the negative side of things, he has nearly 50% groundball rate that will clearly serve to limit his chances of hitting the ball out of the park. However, that is balanced out by a 39.7% hard hit rate in the month of June, which means that when he is hitting fly balls he is often hitting them hard with the potential for extra base hits.

Even with potential regression coming, Mancini remains a piece worth adding as he has earned full-time at-bats and moved up in the Orioles’ batting order with his strong performance. In May, Mancini batted predominantly seventh and eighth in the lineup, but in June he has batted mostly fifth or sixth. That has changed his counting stat potential greatly, as in June he has scored 15 runs and driven in 18 as compared to scoring just five runs and driving in 15 in May.

With Chris Davis out at least a few more weeks, Mancini is worth a look on the waiver wire in five-outfielder leagues as he continues to swing a hot bat while receiving full-time at-bats.