MLB Streaks & Trends: Bryan Reynolds is Mashing

It’s Saturday, so it’s time to grab your coffee, tea, or whatever your morning/early afternoon beverage of choice is and dive into some notable streaks and trends across Major League Baseball. Based on the first few months of the season played out, I wouldn’t have expected to see Franmil Reyes be a meaningful fantasy baseball contributor, not to mention having one of the longer hit streaks in baseball. He’s been excellent for the Cubs, and when he’s hot, we know how dangerous he can be in the fantasy baseball landscape. If he’s available in your fantasy baseball league, go pick him up now. On the other hand, Josh Bell has decided to hit ground balls nearly two-thirds of the time in San Diego, and his batting average has plummeted since heading to the Padres with Juan Soto at the MLB Trade deadline. As we are about to embark on the upcoming week, be sure to check out our fantasy baseball waiver wire article and stock watch videos for even more content to help boost your fantasy baseball teams. Let’s take a look at some of the notable hit streaks and current trends across Major League Baseball.

Stat Leaders

Streaks

Who’s Hot

Bryan Reynolds, PIT

Over the last seven calendar days, no one in Major League Baseball has a higher OPS than Bryan Reynolds (1.583). He’s white hot at the dish, and for fantasy baseball managers, not only is he hitting for average, but he has four home runs and 11 RBI over his last 22 at-bats. I don’t love the fact that he has struck out a good bit of late (8 K’s in 22 at-bats), but he’s offsetting that with an excellent batting average and good pop. He’s up to .265 on the year, and while he likely won’t match last year’s batting average, he has a good chance to exceed last year’s home run mark, and set a new career high in that department.
 

Franmil Reyes, CHC

Getting out of Cleveland has proven to be great for Reyes, although to be fair, even the smallest of impacts elsewhere would be better than what he was doing in Cleveland. In 70 games with Cleveland, Reyes did hit nine home runs with 28 RBI, but a .213 batting average and 37.1 percent strikeout rate stuck out like a sore thumb. Since heading to Chicago, his 26.3 percent strikeout rate is far more palatable, and he’s hitting .368 with a .455 wOBA and 195 wRC+ in his new threads. He hasn’t hit as many fly balls with his new club, but his immense power can offset that a bit. Fantasy baseball managers should be looking to add Reyes while he is seeing the ball well during this hot streak.

Alex Verdugo, BOS

Verdugo is hitting .440 over his last seven games, and .404 over his last 15 games. He has a .615 slugging percentage over his last 52 at-bats, though just one home run hasn’t provided fantasy baseball managers with much else to surround that impressive batting average. Sure, the 12 runs scored and five RBI are nice during this stretch, but his .283 batting average for the season is less impressive when you factor in just seven home runs and one stolen base. For fantasy baseball managers, he should continue to provide a good source of batting average, with an occasional home run and here and there. However, he’s the perfect complement to someone else on your team who does hit for power or steal bases, but doesn’t have a great average to show for it.
 

Who’s Not

Mike Yastrzemski, SF

To be rather blunt, Yastrzemski can’t catch a break right now. He’s hitless in last 21 at-bats, striking out 10 times in that span, which results in a 40 percent strikeout rate. He has a -34 wRC+ during this stretch, but when you look at his Statcast metrics, particularly his barrel rate, they are right on par with his numbers for the season as a whole. However, a steep drop in hard hit rate, with an increased swinging strike rate and ground ball rate, doesn’t exactly lend itself to the most productive recipe for success.

Josh Bell, SD

Bell hasn’t quite provided the impact in the heart of the order that the Padres were hoping for when acquiring him. There’s plenty of time to turn it around, but in 16 games with his new club, he’s hitting just .121 with a .159 BABIP, and a 20.6 percent strikeout rate. He’s maintained a solid walk rate to get on base a bit for the club, but no home runs and just two RBI wasn’t exactly what the Padres were hoping or needing when getting him in the Juan Soto trade package. His GB/FB ratio since joining the Padres is 2.64, and for the year as a whole, he sits at 1.60. Bell needs to trade some ground balls in for line drives and fly balls, because a 1.9 degree launch angle with San Diego isn’t going to cut it.

Rafael Devers, BOS

Devers is just 3-for-24 over his last six games, good for a .125 average, .185 OBP, and .477 OPS. He has just three strikeouts in that span, but his barrel rate is down almost eight percentage points, and his hard contact rate is down 10 percent compared to his mark for the full season. Furthermore, for the year, he has a 19.6 percent line drive rate, but over his last six games, it’s at just 9.1 percent. The struggles can be dated back to his return from going on the IL, because after he missed some time at the end of July, he’s hit just .143 with a .120 BABIP and 38 wRC+ in the month of August.

Statistical Credits:

baseballsavant.mlb.com
fangraphs.com
baseballmusings.com

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