Yandy Diaz (1B/3B, TB) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~260

CURRENT ADP: ~297 overall

ANALYSIS: The Tampa Bay Rays took a chance when they traded for Yandy Diaz last year after he spent two years developing in Cleveland with partial playing time. In 2019, Diaz slashed .267/.340/.476 with 14 HR, 53 R, 38 RBI, and a 10.1% walk rate, despite missing 83 games due to injury. Heading into 2020, Diaz will break camp as the starting third baseman in his second year with the ballclub.

A look into Diaz's Statcast will brighten any drafter's day. He is in the 92nd percentile in exit velocity, 82nd percentile in hard-hit %, 84th percentile in xBA, 77th percentile in xwOBA, and 74th percentile in xSLG. Yandy had the 38th-best max exit velocity at 114.3 MPH. He set a career-high in barrels with 26 in only 250 batted ball events. His 7.5 barrels per plate appearance were better than Mike Moustakas and Max Muncy; both third basemen are getting drafted nearly 150 picks earlier. Sure, he doesn't have a spectacular sprint speed, but the rest of his metrics light up the screen.

Diaz's biggest flaw is hitting too many ground balls. There needs to be a continued improvement in the launch angle before he can break out. Over the past three seasons, Diaz has minimally increased the lift of his batted balls. A launch angle of 5.7 is still below league average, but he's heading in the right direction. Once he raises the launch angle even to league average, look out! He increased his fly-ball rate to 32.0% in 2019, which was an 8.7% improvement from 2018.

When you dig deep, Yandy Diaz becomes a very appealing sleeper. He has already shown the ability to get on base and make hard contact with the bat. The last piece of the puzzle will be to elevate the ball into the Tropicana Stadium bleachers. His current ADP is 297, which means he is being drafted as a reserve player. He should make for a very profitable draft day selection.