Brenton Doyle: Up-And-Coming Dynasty Player

Shepherd University, which is located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, has produced four draft picks during its history. Three of those players are people who none of us have ever heard of. But one of them is Brenton Doyle, the center fielder for the Colorado Rockies. Doyle was selected in the fourth round of the 2019 draft, and Doyle has proven to be a great selection by the Rockies.

After the draft, he signed with the club and was assigned to Grand Junction, the team’s Rookie ball team. All he did there was slash .383/.477/.611 with eight homers, 33 RBI, and 17 steals in 51 games. And all he has done since then is to continue to hit and show improvement at each level of ball he has played on.

So let’s take a dive in the Brenton Doyle, an Up-and-Coming Dynasty Player

CAREER STATS

The spotlight on Doyle should not be very surprising. In two auction leagues in which he was available, I was thinking I would be able to “sneak” Doyle through the auction process and get him for a cheap price. Found out my thinking was wrong.

For a player who was easy to add via free agency last season, he enters the 2024 season rostered on 96% of Yahoo teams. Over in Fantrax, his roster percentage is at 99% and his ADP is at 79.27. Those who play in ESPN leagues are a little slower in realizing the value of Doyle as he is found on only 40% of rosters.

In my Top 400 Dynasty Rankings, I ranked Doyle at No. 75. But I think he will be ranked higher this time next year.

The Tools

• Hit

There were a lot of reasons for Brenton Doyle’s improvement from 2023 to 2024. The easiest improvement to point to is his strikeout rate, dropping from 35% in ’23 to 25.4% last year. That is a pretty significant drop. One would deduce that the decrease in his strikeout percentage was due to Doyle not chasing as many pitches. But that really wasn’t the case. His chase rate in 2023 was 32.2% and last year it was 30%. No, the difference for Doyle was his ability to actually make contact against pitches in the zone.

His zone contact percentage in 2023 was 74.8%. For context, the MLB average is 82%. In 2024, Doyle was basically at the MLB average as his zone contact percentage was 81.1%. So, not surprisingly, Doyle’s ability to make contact in zone led to fewer strikeouts, which led to a higher batting average as more balls were put into play. So his xBA went from .200 to .254 and his  xSLG went from .344 to .436.

Not only did he reduce his strikeouts, he also increased his walk rate from 5.1% to 7.6%. That is still below the MLB average of 8.4%, but it is inching closer to that standard. Overall, his improvement at the plate to just make contact and be a little more patient allowed him to increase his slash line from .203/.250/.343 to .260/.317/.446

• Power

While Brenton Doyle did a better job of making contact, he also did a better job of hitting the ball harder when contact was made. In 2023, his ISO was .140, his HR% was 2.3, his Average EV was 85.1 mph and his Hard Hit% was 35.3. Jump to 2024 and all of those numbers were better. The ISO was at .186, HR% was 3.8, the AEV was 88.4 mph and the Hard Hit% was 41.6%. He also increased his line drive percentage, decreased the ground ball percentage, and increased his fly ball percentage. All of that accounts for the increase in his home run percentage.

And the power isn’t something that is new to Doyle. In three seasons in college, he hit 55 homers in 292 games with a .647 SLG. In the minors, he had a career SLG of .496 and hit 22 homers between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022.

• Speed

Stealing bases has always been a part of Doyle’s game. He stole 52 bases in college while only getting thrown out nine times. In the minors, he swiped 62 bags with 12 caught stealing and in his time with the Rockies he is 52-for-62 in stolen base attempts. His sprint speed ranks with the top players in the game. In 2023 his sprint speed ranked in the 98th percentile and last season it ranked in the 94th percentile.

Doyle will rack up the steals, and in leagues that also use caught stealing as a stat, he is not going to hurt you there either.

The Verdict

There really is no reason for you not to target Brenton Doyle to fill a slot in your outfield or in center field if your league breaks out the positions. But if you are looking for any red flags, there are a few to take note of.

First, Doyle’s production was vastly different at home compared to the road. At Coors Field he slashed .313/.365/.534 with 12 homers, 43 RBI, and 16 steals. He also had a 21.7% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. But on the road, Doyle was a completely different player, slashing .211/.271/.364 with 11 homers, 29 RBI and 14 steals while posting a 28.8% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate.

He also saw his production drop off from the first half to the second half/ In the first half he was a .276/.343/.472 hitter while that line fell to .234/.274/.407 line in the second half. A lot of that lack of production came in September. In 19 games he slashed .167/.194/.212 with only one home run and six RBI.

But I am not going to make too much of one bad month. And Colorado players have traditionally had bad home/road splits. That is what you get when you have Rockies in your lineup. But overall, Doyle made a huge jump from season one to season two of his career. He likely won’t make the same jump this season, but I would be stunned to see him regress. He is a player you should go after.