Franmil Reyes (OF, SD) - Week 20 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

OWNED IN: 6% of leagues

ANALYSIS: After the first few months of his 2018 campaign were characterized by a slough of struggles with a pinch of power, 23-year old Franmil Reyes has exploded into the month of August with a 1.637 OPS and three dingers in 18 AB so far. He sports a few plate peripherals that are far from ideal for power hitting. His incredibly high strikeout rate of 35.4%, along with a below-average pull rate of 34.2%, and a GB/FB ratio of 1.46 certainly leave a lot of yard opportunities squandered in historically pitcher-friendly Petco Park. However, several performance factors continue to point to Franmil Reyes being a force of nature to contend with.

In a limited sample of 130 AB this year, Reyes has produced a hard contact rate of 43.4% with a very low soft contact rate of 13.2% on his way to a cumulative ISO of .262 for 2018. Most impressively, he has been producing a fantastic average exit velocity of 92.8 mph with an average bomb distance of 406 feet (off of dingers that traveled as far as 455 and 477 feet!) that certainly supports the fact that Reyes has true power with the lumber that he has finally started to apply in a practical manner since the start of August. What's more, his 25-homer, 102 RBI season at Double-A San Antonio displays that this kind of big league power hitting is well within the realm of reasonable output for him. In the baseball season's latter months, true power hitting potential is hard to come by. So if you are a Fantasy Baseball Manager in search of Herculean strength to end the year, Franmil Reyes should jump to the forefront of your radar among widely available options.