Chris Young

After three straight seasons crushing southpaws, Young disappointed in 2017 as he managed a paltry .590 OPS last season with a left-hander on the hill. Putting that in perspective, the previous two years, Young slugged .589 and .575 against lefties. The crash came at an inopportune time as Young enjoyed his second-best season ever when lacking the platoon advantage, posting a .793 OPS versus right-handers. Driving Young's struggles with lefty pitching was a huge drop in flyball distance in that scenario, average just 221 feet. The Green Monster is close, but it isn't that close. After nine consecutive seasons with at least 356 plate appearances, Young fell well short of 300 for the second straight season. Now 34 years old and lacking the speed element to his game, Young will be lucky to catch on as a fourth of fifth outfielder. For fantasy, he's only viable as an endgamer in AL/NL-only formats.

Young has improved his average in every season since an abysmal 2013 campaign with Oakland where he hit .200 in 107 games. In 2016, he slashed .276/.352/.498 in 227 plate appearances over 76 games while battling through various injuries. Young improved against right-handed pitchers in 2016, increasing his average from .182 to .246 against righties, while maintaining a strong .329 average against southpaws. He hit nine home runs and stole four bases over the course of the season. Considering that he only played in 76 games, nine home runs isn't bad for an aging outfielder like Young. He doesn't possess the same speed he used to, however, as he once stole 28 bases in a season as an everyday center fielder. He played just three games in center last year, as he's made the switch to the outfield corners. Given his role as a small-side platoon player, Young is more interesting as a DFS spot starter than as a season-long filler.

Young essentially served in a platoon role for much of 2015, as the 32-year-old was one of the few Yankees who could consistently hit left-handed pitching with a line of .327/.397/.575 against southpaws. The outfielder was a liability against righties, hitting just .182, and those struggles will likely keep him in a similar role with Boston after he signed on a two-year deal in the offseason. Young still provides decent power, as he hit 14 homers in a limited role, but he no longer possesses the same base stealing skills he had earlier in his career, as he's swiped 11 total bases in the past two seasons. Young will be an intriguing option on nights that he draws into the lineup, but a short-end platoon role is not ideal for those in standard mixed leagues.

Young landed with the Yankees on a minor league deal in late August, after the Mets granted him an outright release just 12 days earlier. While he was a below-replacement-level player during his time with the Mets, things seemed to click for Young during his limited time in the Bronx, as he finished the season by hitting .282/.354/.521 over his final 23 games. Whether he made sustainable adjustments to his swing, or simply feasted on weaker pitching in September remains to be seen, but the Yankees were intrigued enough to re-sign Young to a one-year, $2.5 million deal in November. He'll likely serve as the team's fourth outfielder, taking on the role previously held by Ichiro Suzuki and seeing most of his starts against left-handed pitching, as he's hit .254/.357/.460 over his career against southpaws.

Young struggled all season long for the A's and ended the year hitting .200 with only 12 home runs, spending a lot of time on the bench because of the depth Oakland had in the outfield. As an everyday player earlier in his career, Young proved capable of mashing left-handed pitching and playing very good defense in center field, but the A's had Coco Crisp at their disposal to play center last season, eliminating the need to play Young against the weaker portion of his platoon splits. The Mets signed Young to a one-year deal in November, and he will likely get full-time at-bats with the chance to return to the 20/20 levels he displayed with Arizona earlier in his career, but beware the batting average risk if the Mets play him regularly against righties to extract value from his defense.

Young made mechanical adjustments to his swing prior to last season and was tearing the cover off the ball before crashing into the outfield wall in mid-April and suffering a slight tear of a ligament in his shoulder. He was never the same after the injury, and Young later admitted that he returned from the disabled list too quickly. The D-Backs started platooning Young in center field with Gerardo Parra, and a quadriceps injury eventually knocked him out of the picture completely in early September. With $10 million left on his contract, the D-Backs traded Young to the A's in October where he'll enter another crowded outfield situation. Keep in mind that while Young should offer a steady supply of power and speed with the risk of a low batting average, he's hit just .224/.311/.409 in his career away from Chase Field and the league change and new home park he'll play in with Oakland could sap some of his power.

Young delivered another 20-20 season in 2011 and seems to have settled in as a consistent .240/.335/.435 type player thanks to steady walk (12 percent) and contact (75 percent) rates. Further, Young graded out as one of the best defensive center fielders in baseball last season, so the D-Backs don't have much to gain by moving him to left field once A.J. Pollock is ready for the big leagues. A career .229/.300/.419 hitter against right-handed pitching, Young may be in danger of slipping to the bottom third of the Arizona lineup against them, but he continued to mash lefties last season and should see a quarter of his games hitting near the heart of the order. In the event of a trade, Young's offensive production could fall off considerably as he's carried an .801 OPS at Chase Field compared to a .711 mark on the road during his career.

Written off as a disappointment following a poor .212/.311/.400 line in 2009, Young bounced back in a big way thanks to an improved contact rate (from 69 to 75 percent) and a more aggressive approach on the basepaths. He's always had a good combination of power and speed, but the skill set is starting to look more refined at age 27. He's owed $24 million over the next three seasons -- a bargain if 2010 in his new baseline -- which could punch his ticket out of the desert once A.J. Pollock is ready for the big leagues as the D-Backs continue to trim payroll.

Despite his overall struggles last season, Young showed occasional flashes of putting things back together including a .266/.343/.500 line along with six homers in September. Young also had a couple of other months with a strong on-base percentage including June (.402) and August (.385), but his overall season was clearly a disappointment. As a result, there may not be much interest in him on draft day, despite the fact that the D-Backs are likely stuck with his salary and unwilling to give up on him just yet. At 26, it's a make-or-break season for Young, who needs to play better defense in center field if he's going to be inconsistent at the plate. His combination of power and speed should remain in the back of your mind when you're throwing darts at $1 players during the endgame.

Young's production fell in 2008, as he hit just 22 homers and stole 14 bases after narrowly missing the 30-30 club in 2007. A strong second half pushed his numbers back toward respectability, hitting .278/.343/.508 and picking up nine of his 14 stolen bases after the All-Star break. D-Backs manager Bob Melvin didn't push his team to run much early in the season, but Young was productive once he received the green light and started getting on base enough to take advantage of his speed. We'd be surprised if Young ever hits for an average above .270 for a season, but look for his power and speed to continue providing plenty of value for fantasy owners to swoon over.

Save for a batting average that was limited by an unlucky .258 BABIP, Young posted excellent numbers in his first full season with Arizona, narrowly missing the 30-homer, 30-steal plateau. Don't be surprised if his 2008 numbers are even better, as the D-Backs may be willing to give him the green light more often with the lack of a pure power threat in the middle of the lineup, while Young should be able to cut back some on his strikeouts with a full season's worth of major-league at-bats under his belt.

Only a wrist injury in spring training kept him from joining the list of great 2006 rookies. His batting average will lag his other skills, which will include terrific power and speed. The only true center fielder among the Diamondbacks' great hitting prospects, at least until Upton gets there.

Young emerged from the prospect shadows with a Double-A season that had both scouty-types and sabermetricians alike drooling at his skill set and youth. The big prize in the Javy Vazquez deal, he'll now get a chance to thrive in the thin desert air with Conor Jackson and Carlos Quentin hitting around him, a thought that should keep NL West GMs awake for many years to come.

Young is in the wrong organization. His 24 home runs and 66 walks in Low-A as a 20-year-old would have put him on the fast track in one of the 'Moneyball' systems. He'll play third fiddle to Brian Anderson and Ryan Sweeney in the White Sox's eyes, unless he does something too impressive to ignore -- like double his stolen base total.