Jose Abreu
Fangraphs End of 2015 Fantasy Ranking: #43
When Jose Abreu came to the United States from Cuba many wondered how his skills would translate. While in Cuba he flashed 30+ home run power, but could he offer similar production against big league pitching? In 2014 and 2015, the answer was clearly yes. Abreu hit 36 HR in his rookie season and added 107 RBI. Last season, he crossed the 30 HR (30), 100 RBI (101) mark again, and established himself as one of the best power hitters in baseball. Fantasy owners would be crazy to pass up that kind of production.
However, 2016 has been a very different story for Abreu. He’s still hitting for power, he currently has three home runs, but his batting line has fallen off a cliff. Last season Abreu hit .290/.347/.502, but so far he’s only managed a .190/.284/.362 line. It’s great that he’s still producing in one to two categories, but most fantasy owners drafted Abreu expecting all around offensive production (minus steals). Yes, he’s still valuable, but he’s clearly not producing at the level that fantasy owners expected.
As with most hitters on this list, Abreu should rebound in the coming weeks. He’s been too good over the past two seasons to continue to hit this poorly. One obvious culprit of his slow start has been an unusually low BABIP. Currently his BABIP sits at .211 compared with .333 a season ago. Some of those balls being caught for outs should start to drop in for hits.
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