2022 Fantasy Baseball Insertion Ranking - Washington Nationals
Preparing my 2022 fantasy baseball ranks one team at a time!
Explanation & Other Team Links Here
Hitters to Rank
Juan Soto
Josh Bell
Keibert Ruiz
Lane Thomas
Victor Robles
Juan Soto
Nobody is going to doubt Soto’s production anymore, but this lineup around him is about to be really gross. Looking at last year, the difference between a top 10 offense and a bottom 10 offense is something like 100 runs, which means you’re looking at 0.6 fewer runs to score or drive in per game if we’re assuming the Nationals are going to be a bottom ten offense. We should be careful not to let that drop Soto too far in our rankings. His .313/.465/.536 line with 29 homers and nine steals was elite even after quite a slow start (hit just .270 and slugged .387 with four homers in April-May). The 13.3% Brl%, 116.6 max velo, 82% contact rate, and 14.7% K% is just ridiculous. Almost nobody else in the league can do what he does - making this much contact and doing it so loudly.
Maybe he’ll check in with a somewhat disappointing run and RBI count, but everything else should continue to be great (outside of steals, I guess). He’ll probably even post a career-best walk rate as he has no protection in the lineup, making him the #1 OBP bat in the league (although this might actually serve to knock his HR count down a few since he’ll see fewer pitches to hit). We shouldn’t overthink it though, Soto is a first-round bat.
Josh Bell
It was a decent year for Bell who piled up 27 homers in his 566 PA (a strong 21 PA/HR). He cut the strikeouts down to 18% and posted a nice 11% walk rate as well. He still has the big-time pop (115.8 max exit velo), but his barrel rate suffered a bit at just 8.8%. Still, for a guy striking out so little, that’s a pretty decent number. The BABIP was low (.276), which explains some of the pretty mediocre .261 batting average, I’d have expected higher than that with the low strikeout rate.
We might be able to find some upside with his fly ball rates:
You can see there that these two years with the Nats have seen his lowest FB% by a huge margin. In his elite 2019 season, that number was 37%, and then it’s been down 10 points from there the last two. If he can stretch that into the thirties again you’d expect a better homer rate. All-in-all this is probably a better fantasy hitter than he’s given credit for, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him really smash his draft price next year.
Keibert Ruiz
An 88% contact rate, but a low 2.5% Brl% and a 106.5 max exit velo. Not even sure how he managed three homers with that kind of barrel rate. It’s always silly to make big judgments about a 23-year-old with just 104 career plate appearances, especially at the catcher position, so let’s just get that out of the way. The good news is that he’s good at something (not striking out), which means he provides some kind of floor for fantasy purposes, and the upside is presumedly high given the prospect status. He did hit 16 homers in his 231 PA’s in AAA last year, a positive sign for his power prospects, so there’s a lot to get excited about here. Steamer has him under 400 PA’s, and there’s no chance for DH appearances, so that’s probably about right. That hurts, but this is a rare guy that could be a positive for your fantasy team’s offense from the catcher slot - and that’s worth rolling the dice on - he is my new #1 catcher.
Lane Thomas
Not sure why I’m really even doing these next two guys. Thomas made a decent amount of contact (24% K%, 81% contact rate), but didn’t show much in terms of power (37.7 PA/HR, 7.3% Brl%). The appeal, I suppose, is the 15 homer, 15 steal upside (he was more than on pace for this last year if you’re into the extrapolating thing) for insanely cheap. The Nationals are going to have to give some losers (no offense?) a lot of run next year, so Thomas is someone to consider in deeper leagues.
Victor Robles
Guy just doesn’t have it. Lowered the K% last year to 23%, posted a career-high 9% walk rate, and still couldn’t manage anything. Slashed .203/.310/.295 in 369 PAs. He feasibly could steal a decent amount of bases if he finds some way to get on base, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen for him. He’s not a guy to draft in normal leagues.
Pitchers to Rank
Stephen Strasburg
Stephen Strasburg
The early ADP on Strasburg is an astounding 344, so this guy is legit free. He’s 33 now and has just two good fantasy seasons since 2014 (one was an elite season in 2019 though where he actually did manage 209 innings). At the time of this writing, he has a real chance to start the season in the Major League rotation, but you’re really playing with fire.
We can write the negative stuff all day long about his injury history, but the fact is that a really useful fantasy season is still possible with this guy, and he’s seeming like a guy you can get for almost no cost. I’ll be fine taking some shots on him, and his draft cost is certain to come up in a hurry if he throws a few effective innings early in spring.
Where Do They Rank?
Just going to refer you to the ranks here. If you’re following along with this series live (not many are), Soto (#2 behind Tatis) and Bell (#10 behind Gallo and in front of Cron) are the only two guys I ranked significantly here. I’d personally rather take a shot on a Strasburg (given he’s ready to start the year with the team) than a Jordan Montgomery type (there are just so many Montgomery types you can find for free during the year), so I slid him in above that tier.