2022 Fantasy Baseball Insertion Ranking - Free Agents 1
Making my 2022 fantasy baseball rankings one team a time.
Explanation & Other Team Links Here
I am so excited for this to be over, so this is going to be very brief.
Hitters to Rank
Freddie Freeman
Trevor Story
Nick Castellanos
Kris Bryant
Carlos Correa
Kyle Schwarber
Eddie Rosario
Nelson Cruz
Anthony Rizzo
Michael Conforto
Jorge Soler
Tommy Pham
Jonathan Villar
Andrew McCutchen
Freddie Freeman
There’s nothing to dive into with Freeman, we know who he is. He’s great in everything but SB and fills a position that gets tough to fill pretty quickly. I imagine he signs back with the Braves and has another MVP-level season.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Rafael Devers, Manny Machado
Trevor Story
Very cheap now as he leaves the Rockies. If Arenado is any guidebook, he’ll lose 30 points in batting average but nothing else should be overly affected. 30/20 season is probable.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Francisco Lindor, Tyler O’Neill
Nick Castellanos
Great PA/HR (17) without a great barrel rate (10.6%). 71% contact is good, 21% K% is great. Could be a .290+ batting average with 25+ homers and plenty of R/RBI regardless of where he signs, but I do think the power numbers were helped by Great American ballpark, so you’d have to downgrade him a touch if he goes to a bad hitters ballpark again.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: J.D. Martinez, Bryan Reynolds
Carlos Correa
No steals but an improved K%-BB% last year (18.1%-11.7%), that led to a great .279/.366/.485 line with 104 runs and 92 RBI. Probably more of a 25 homer guy than 35, but no real knocks on him besides the lack of steals.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Brandon Crawford
Kyle Schwarber
Managed strikeouts a bit better than he had in the past (27%) and walked more (13%). Elite source of power still (14.7 PA/HR, 17.5% Brl% - but it as a shortened season).
It will be very interesting to see where he signs as he’s a guy that can be really damaged by the ballpark. Fenway was great for him. No steals, very questionable batting average.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Franmil Reyes, Hunter Renfroe
Eddie Rosario
Not very impressive season line (.259 average, .435 SLG, 29.4 PA/HR, 5.9% Brl%). But still made tons of contact (82%, 14.8% K%), and continued to be one of the swing-happiest hitters out there (53.5% swing%, 6.3% BB%). That makes him a liability in OBP leagues, but you probably don’t care about that.
With the Braves he hit for much more power (9.6% Brl%, 15.1 PA/HR) while keeping everything else the same. His max exit velocity with the Braves was a bad 105.5, so it was a bit surprising that he went for seven homers in those 106 PA. I won’t read into the short stint with the Braves, he’s a batting average guy later in the draft that will chip in a bit in HR and SB (14 and 11 last year - that’s what I’d count on this year)
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Lourdes Gurriel
Nelson Cruz
Another solid season at age 40. 32 homers, 21.6% K%, 18.2 PA/HR, .497 SLG. He seemed to struggle in Tampa (26.9% K% with the Rays compared to 18.5% with the Twins) - could this have something to do with the much-discussed batter’s eye thing?
In Tropicana Field: 98 PA, 3 HR (32.7 PA/HR), 6% Brl%, 28.6% K%, 73% Contact%
Everywhere else: 476 PA, 29 HR (16.4 PA/HR), 15% Brl%, 20.6% K%, 72% Contact%
He’s hella old but that’s been true for awhile. Seems like a 30+ HR guy with RBI and a .260+ AVG.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Nate Lowe, Bobby Dalbec
Anthony Rizzo
Middling power last year (26.2 PA/HR), and 19 of his 22 homers came in Yankees Stadium. His 7.7% Brl% is very concerning, but he still hit the ball harder than most do (104.6 90th percentile velo). He kept the strikeout rate really low (15%), but walked a little less (9%). The .248 batting average was by far the worst mark of his career (discounting 2020 which we should always do, but he hit an even worse .222 in those 243 PA). If he’s going to have a 15% K% I can’t see how he doesn’t get back to .270, but he’s not the great source of power he used to be.
He continues to run a bit, stealing six bags, so he’s not a zero there. Where he lands will certainly have an impact.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: C.J. Cron, Andrew Vaughn
Michael Conforto
He struggled with health and performance last year with 479 PA and a bad .232 batting average. The 12% BB% kept his OBP up at .344, but he slugged just .384 - that’s pretty pathetic. He limited strikeouts as good as he has since his rookie year with a 21.7% K%. That’s good news.
His homer count was low at just 14 (34.2 PA/HR), but he did have a decent 9.2% Brl%. He just hit too many ground-balls.
I think there could be a nice bounceback for Conforto with some health, but at best he’s mainly a HR/RBI guy.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Nate Lowe, Eduardo Escobar
Jorge Soler
Great homer count (22.3 PA/HR on a 12.6% Brl%), but another pitiful batting average at .223. He absolutely murders the ball, one of the best raw power sources in the league.
He started making more contact about halfway through the year and that was huge.
After June 1st: .245 AVG, .490 SLG, 17.7 PA/HR, 12.3% Brl%, 19.7% K%, 12.5% BB%
That’s a stud power hitter. But he’s a zero in steals and doesn’t profile for a good batting average even if he does keep the K% in the mid-twenties.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Kyle Schwarber, Hunter Renfroe
Tommy Pham
Didn’t exactly earn himself a starting spot with a new team, but he’ll probably get one. It was a wild ride of a season for him:
He started awful and finished pretty awful too.
April: .182 AVG, .194 SLG, 0 HR, 2 SB
May: .253 AVG, .414 SLG, 3 HR, 4 SB
June: .341 AVG, .625 SLG, 6 HR, 6 SB
July: .225 AVG, .348 SLG, 2 HR, 1 SB
Aug: .154 AVG, .282 SLG, 2 HR, 0 SB
Sep: .197 AVG, .379 SLG, 2 HR, 1 SB
He lost playing time at the end of the year and rightfully so. So this is a pretty risky guy, but he’ll be a nice steals source if he finds a team that needs him to be in the lineup.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Josh Rojas
Jonathan Villar
Steals streamer, borderline starter if he’s an every-day big league player.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Nick Madrigal
Andrew McCutchen
Getting quite old now but solid 23% K%, 21.3 PA/HR, 14% BB%, 76% Contact last year on a low .242 BABIP.
Steals are gone, he’s a 5-10 guy at best. Decent HR/OBP guy though.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Charlie Blackmon, Jonathan Schoop
Pitchers to Rank
Kenley Jansen
Carlos Rodon
Clayton Kershaw
Zack Greinke
Kenley Jansen
Should be near the top if he signs back with LAD, but he’ll be the closer wherever he goes.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Giovanny Gallegos
Carlos Rodon
Was incredible last year, but the White Sox didn’t even offer him a contract. I would not expect another healthy year - I’m fading.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Carlos Carrasco, Blake Snell
Clayton Kershaw
The Swinging-strike rate was ridiculous at 16.8%. Threw only 121.2 innings so that continues to be an issue. No reason to doubt the performance though with a 29.5% K% and 4.3% BB% last year - he was one of the best pitchers in the game when on the field.
I like him for how cheap he is, although going to an American League team would be a downgrade.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Joe Musgrove, Shohei Ohtani
Zack Greinke
Bottomed out last year, no K’s and losing the touch, it seems. Borderline draftable.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Taijuan Walker, Hyun-Jin Ryu