Didi Gregorius

Yankee Stadium did wonders for Gregorius' career. Of the 97 homers Gregorius hit as a Yankee, 54 came at home, 51 to the pull side. Among batters with at least 95 homers since 2015, Gregorius has the shortest average flyball and home-run distance. Even if he's fully recovered from 2018 Tommy John surgery, Gregorius will miss the short porch in the Bronx after signing with the Phillies in December, though Citizens Bank Park also plays favorably for lefty power. Last season, Gregorius' rehab delayed his debut until early June, and while his slash line was his worst with the Yankees since his first season with the club, the underlying metrics hint at some bad luck as his average exit velocity and barrel rate were better than the prior campaign. Gregorius' strikeout rate rose, but 15.4% is still excellent. Gregorius' numbers will suffer leaving Yankee Stadium, but probably not to the extent some fear.

Gregorius' 2019 value took a serious hit when it was announced he needed to have Tommy John surgery in mid-October. The recovery time for that surgery for a position player is not as long as it is for a pitcher, but it's still relatively lengthy. It is safe to assume Gregorius is going to be unavailable until the All-Star break, which is a shame given his offensive production from shortstop. He hit 22 of his 27 homers off righties and 19 of the 27 came at home. Seventeen of the 27 homers came before the break, but his slugging percentage in the second half was 90 points above his first-half mark that was mostly HR/FB driven. When healthy, Gregorius can yank a number of homers over the right-field fence and provide better-than-average offensive production for a middle infielder. His counting numbers from 2015 may be a realistic target for what he can do in an abbreviated 2019 season.

While 2017 was Gregorius' best statistical season to date, it wasn't a year of substantial skill growth, if there was any real skill growth at all. He walked just 4.4 percent of the time (5.5 percent career walk rate), and his 23.1 percent hard-contact rate was below his 2016 mark -- not to mention it was a bottom-six mark among qualified hitters, according to FanGraphs. To his credit, Gregorius did trim his strikeout rate to a career-low 12.3 percent and he improved a lot on the road, batting .321/.354/.528 away from Yankee Stadium compared to .276/.298/.417 in 2016. However, the improved counting production seems more to do with the new baseball and 164 at-bats in the cleanup spot than anything else. The "expected" numbers from Statcast (.285 xwOBA, .249 xBA, .400 xSLG) suggest Gregorius overachieved, and that he will likely regress to somewhere closer to his 2016 levels this upcoming season.

At just 26 years old, Gregorius continued to progress on offense in 2016 and put up career-best marks nearly across the board. The shortstop entered the year with 22 career home runs, but he turned in 20 long balls to go along with a career-high 70 RBI. The lefty also seemingly figured out how to hit southpaws after being a liability against them in his first few years, as he hit .320 with an .826 OPS against left-handed pitching. He also cut down on his strikeouts (career-low 13.7 percent strikeout rate) while adding a small speed element to his game with seven stolen bases in eight attempts. Shortstop is not the wasteland it once was, and if Gregorius maintains the gains he displayed last season, or even builds on them, he will make for an affordable high-end middle-infield option or low-end option at shortstop in standard leagues.

Gregorius got off a to a shaky start in 2015, hitting just .206 in April while committing numerous fielding, baserunning and mental errors, but he was able to turn things around as the season progressed. The shortstop finished the year hitting a respectable .265, providing plus defense and becoming one of the team's more reliable hitters amid a roster full of late-season slumps and injuries. The lefty also showed improvement against southpaws, slashing .247/.311/.315 after being a liability against lefties in his first two seasons, and he sports a .626 OPS compared to just a .554 mark in his career versus southpaws. He'll turn 26 in February, so there's still plenty of room for his game to continue developing, and the Yankees will gladly take his solid offensive production (for a shortstop) and the defense that he displayed for most of the season.

The Diamondbacks chose Chris Owings over Gregorius as the team's primary shortstop to begin the 2014 season, but Gregorius entered the mix in June after hitting .310/.389/.447 at Triple-A Reno. Defense is still Gregorius' calling card, but his room for growth as a hitter remains debatable. With a 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame, the left-handed hitting Gregorius doesn't fit the physical mold of a light-hitting shortstop, but his production fell across the board last season. For his career, Gregorius has a .243/.313/.366 line, 13 home runs, 57 RBI and 83 runs scored over 724 plate appearances, but he's maintained an acceptable level of plate discipline (17.4% K%, 7.4% BB%). Thus far, he's shown no ability to handle left-handed pitching at the big league level, striking out in 25 percent of his plate appearances and carrying a .184/.257/.233 line against southpaws. Acquired by the Yankees via trade in December, Gregorius will replace Derek Jeter at shortstop in the Bronx in 2015.

Many scouts said Gregorius was a weak bat, and early on, that didn't appear to be the case (he went deep in his first at-bat as a Diamondback against the Yankees). His hot April and May eventually cooled and he became the hitter most expected, finishing the season with a .252 average and .332 OBP. While he is a potential trade candidate given the D-Backs' organizational depth in the middle infield, his glove will assure him playing time regardless of where he's playing in 2014. Unfortunately for fantasy owners, it's difficult to project an overwhelming improvement from his 2013 numbers at the plate.

The line on Gregorius remains the same - he has a fantastic glove that the scouts love, but it's up for debate whether his bat will be good enough to carry in a major league starting lineup. The game has evolved to emphasize defense more, so there's a chance yet that Gregorius could make it, but many were surprised when the D-Backs were willing to deal Trevor Bauer away in December to acquire him. It's believed that he will get more time at Triple-A to continue the development of his bat, but the trade should significantly accelerate his timetable to the big leagues. Despite his range in the field, Gregorius is not proficient on the basepaths, having stolen just three bases against nine attempts in the minors last year.

Gregorius hasn't done a whole lot at the plate in his professional career. His .790 OPS at High-A last year was at an extreme offensive environment in Bakersfield. Otherwise, his career OPS has hovered around .700. He just turned 22 in February, so there's time for his bat to catch up to his glove, which is superb. He's about a year-and-a-half away from getting tested at the major league level. He's there as glove-first insurance in case Zack Cozart can't cut it at the position.