A shortened season could lead to a dominant campaign for Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (by ArdenZwelling)
outfielder who can get the barrel of his bat to pitches all over the zone and was an 82nd percentile hard-hit rate batter in 2019? Say he starts seeing the ball well, gets some pitches to hit, and puts them in play at extremely high rates of speed?
Suddenly, something clicked. Gurriel wasn’t only getting by at a position he hadn’t played since he was a 22-year-old in the Cuban National Series — he was thriving. He forced his way back to Toronto, went deep in his first three games, and never looked back. From the day he returned through Aug. 8, he hit .295/.344/.591 with 35 extra-base hits in 66 games. And he piled up nine outfield assists in that span, good enough to lead all MLB left fielders for the season.
Piece together Gurriel’s last two years and you get a rather impressive full-season sample of .279/.310/.499 with 31 home runs over 149 games. Of course, baseball doesn’t work like that. Health is a big-league skill — perhaps the most important one because a player can’t take advantage of any other attributes without it.
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