Matt Olson

A marriage made in baseball heaven, Olson has done nothing but rake since Atlanta acquired him from Oakland in March of 2022. He turned it up to an even greater level in 2023, his second year with the organization, pacing all major-league hitters in home runs (54) and RBI (139) while registering the fourth-highest OPS in the bigs at .993. He finished in the 99th percentile in both average exit velocity and hard-hit rate and ranked in the 97th percentile in xSLG, all en route to a fourth-place finish for NL MVP. Olson enters his age-30 season firing on all cylinders and surrounded by one of the best supporting casts you can find. He again has a chance to lead the majors in homers and should feast on RBI opportunities as the locked-in cleanup man for the reigning National League East champions. With first base lacking some of the depth it had a decade ago, it's probably worth reaching for Olson in the opening rounds of drafts this spring.

Olson handled the impossible task of replacing a face of a franchise as best he could, but the 2022 results were still a fantasy disappointment. Olson was coming off a career year in a bad ballpark with a lesser lineup, so the relocation to Atlanta and its roster was expected to be more of a boon for Olson, yet the performance was closer to 2019 than it was 2021. In hindsight, we should have looked at the risks of changing leagues, replacing Freeman and getting a new contract as a Bermuda Triangle of risks with the slugger, as that is how the season played out. He took advantage of the lineup to continue to drive in runs, and the 34 homers, with the baseball manufacturing issues, were still solid, but he gave back the strikeout gains from 2021, going back to his pre-2020 levels as he worked to adjust to a different league. The 2023 season should allow him to resume the trajectory of 2021 with more familiarity with the National League. That said, how he handles non-fastballs makes or breaks his batting average, and off-speed stuff really ate him up in 2022 (.224 avg., 26 percent Whiff rate) over 2021 (.267 avg., 18 percent whiff rate).

As expected, Olson was traded out of Oakland after the lockout ended. This is what the A's do. He immediately signed a long-term deal with Atlanta after the trade and will replace franchise icon Freddie Freeman at first base. Those are impossible shoes to fill, but Olson did exceedingly well for himself in 2021, bashing 39 homers and finishing fifth in the American League in wRC+ behind only Vladimir Guerrero, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Kyle Tucker. Amazingly, Olson nearly cut his strikeout rate in half (31.4 K% in 2020, 16.8% last season), fueling a big bounce-back after Olson finished below the Mendoza Line during the shortened 2020 season. Olson is now in a significantly friendlier park to hit in, which should in theory help soften the regression that comes with likely giveback in his K-rate. His 115.3 mph maxEV ranked in the top 5% of the league last season, so if you need to make up some ground in the power department early on in your draft, Olson makes a lot of sense.

Expectations were high for Olson after he launched 36 homers while adding 20 points to his batting average in 2019. He played in all 60 games during the shortened 2020 season but was unable to build on his success at the plate as his average sank to .195. Olson swung at fewer pitches outside of the strike zone (on a per-pitch basis), but his contact rate on pitches in the zone fell off. Thanks in large part to an increased walk rate (13.9%), he still managed to finish above league average by wRC+ (103) despite a bottom-six BA among qualified hitters. Olson may have been a bit too patient and could probably stand to regain some of his aggressiveness in the batter's box -- he struggled in a major way when behind in the count last season. Either way, positive regression should steer Olson to a solid landing in 2021. The power upside is still there for Olson to break out of the pack at first base.

Olson missed time early with a hamate injury, yet still came back to hit a career-best 36 homers in 127 games last year in a pitcher's ballpark. The dude simply crushes baseballs as all of his Statcast batted-ball data was in the 90th percentile or higher, except his expected batting average. He absolutely mashes righties (.288/.380/.577 last year), but has also been at least league average against lefties in his career. The flyball and pull-heavy approach works for him as the hard contact allows him to hit through and over the shifts put in his way. He is already a top-10 first baseman and could be a top-3 first baseman if he can avoid the injury bug in 2020. He has 40-homer potential even if the baseball reverts back to its 2018 characteristics; he'll hit 50 if the 2019 regular season baseball sticks around. Invest in full in this first baseman, and you will get your money's worth.

Olson burst onto the scene in 2017, blasting 24 homers in 59 games. Hitting just two doubles in that span was a warning Olson would be hard-pressed to maintain that pace. Sure enough, his extra-base hit ratio normalized as he swatted 29 long balls with 33 two-baggers last year, a more realistic baseline expectation. Olson made strides with his plate skills, walking a tick more while shaving his K% down a few points to 24.7%. His hard contact ranked sixth on the Statcast exit velocity leaderboard along with a respectable 42nd-place finish in barrel rate. Olson was seen as a below-average defender as a prospect, but has improved in that regard. Entering just his age-25 campaign, he is young enough to improve his contact and his ability to hit southpaws (45 of his 53 career blasts have come off right-handed pitching). By playing all 162 games last season, Olson displayed durability, adding to his growing resume.

A lot was made of the power displays exhibited by Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, but if you prorate Olson's numbers over a full season, we're looking at something north of 60 homers. Of course, he only played 59 games, so Olson would have been hard pressed to keep hitting a homer every nine plate appearances in a full campaign (Stanton was one per 11.7 PA while Judge was one per 13 PA). Further, Olson's HR/FB was a ridiculous 41.4 percent. There have been only four players in history with a seasonal mark over 35 percent, two of which were Stanton and Judge in 2017. Olson's power earned him the full-time first base spot, enabling the Athletics to deal Ryon Healy. When the dust settles, the lefty-swinging slugger will be another high-power, high-strikeout hitter with a risky batting average. There's a chance he gets exposed versus southpaws over a full season.

Regardless of their flaws, young left-handed bats with an enticing power tool can establish their own market. Olson (6-foot-5, 230 pounds) has proven as much in his early professional career, with 37 home runs at High-A Stockton and 17 at each of his two stops since. Throughout his farm work, he's kept an equally attractive 15.2 percent walk rate, but Olson's prospect appeal has slipped as he's advanced closer to the big leagues. The A's have avenues at first base, outfield and designated hitter to test the potential middle-of-the-order stick. Olson turns 23 in March, though, and like many hackers, he has holes in his swing. His strikeout rate has hovered in the 23-24 percent range in his time at Double-A Midland and Triple-A Nashville, and logic doesn't say to expect immediate improvement in the big leagues as he adjusts to top-level pitching.

Olson moved up to Double-A in 2015 and took a step back from his big 2014, when he had 37 home runs and 111 RBI with a .281 ISO. Olson hit .249 with 17 home runs in his first full season in Double-A and saw his ISO drop to .189. The good news is that his impressive walk rate stayed stable at 17.9 percent even though his strikeout rate did bump up a touch to 23.8 percent (21.6 percent in 2014). Olson is 22, and while he is still a top-five prospect in the organization, his bit of a downturn upon seeing Double-A pitching likely ended any chance of his starting 2016 with the A's. He has a chance to make it up to the majors in the second half of 2016 and could be the A's starting first baseman (or right fielder if Josh Reddick is moved) to begin 2017.

Olson had a monster 2014 in the power department at High-A Stockton, leading all A's minor leaguers with 37 homers and 97 RBI over 512 at-bats. The 20-year-old also had a nice boost in his batting average, hitting .262 (along with a huge .947 OPS) after hitting merely .225 in 2013. In addition, he added a lot of walks to his resume, walking 45 more times than he did in 2013. The A's sent Olson to the Arizona Fall League after the season to give him a look against other top prospects, but his stint there was cut short by a shoulder injury, suffered in a collision at first base. He's expected to be ready for the start of spring training, and Olson will likely begin the season as the starting first baseman in Double-A, with a legitimate chance to join the A's in 2016.

Olson spent the 2013 season at Low-A Beloit and while the power numbers were impressive (23 homers and 93 RBI), Olson struggled to make contact, hitting only .225 and striking out 148 times. The 19-year-old possesses the power upside from the left side of the plate that teams drool over, but he will look to improve upon his contact in High-A in 2014. If he's able to cut back on the whiffs, Olson could make a significant push up the prospect charts as he ascends the Oakland system.