Brenton Doyle: Up-And-Coming Dynasty Players

Hello everyone. Glad to see you back for another week of Up-and-Coming Dynasty Players. This week I want to focus on Brenton Doyle of the Colorado Rockies.

I just hope that talking about Doyle won’t put a jinx on him. The last weekend of March I talked about Chase Silseth and as soon as I did that, he pretty much landed on the 60-day IL. After talking about Garrett Crochet, he has had a rough two weeks, posting a 10.50 ERA and 1.58 WHIP over his last 12 innings of work.

However, players are going to have their ups and downs, especially younger players. If you are starting to waiver on players like Silseth and Crochet, or a Will Benson or Chas McCormick, don’t. I still see the value in these players and others I have talked about and maintain they will be good dynasty players.

In fact, now might be a good time to try to acquire a player like Crochet as the other owner may be willing to sell low.

Enough about that. Let’s get back to Doyle. He’s a player I’ve been holding back in featuring him in order to see how he would do over the first month of the season. I took a chance on him this offseason by adding him in several leagues and I am more than happy that I did.

Let’s see why I think Brenton Doyle is an up-and-coming dynasty player.

Career Statistics

Brenton Doyle played three years of NCAA baseball, but he did not play at a power school. Instead, he played at Division II Shepherd University. For a player now in the majors, Doyle did as expected and dominated the competition to the tune of a career slash line of .380/.438/.647.

Because he played D-II baseball, how his ability would carry over to the professional level took a leap of faith, and the Rockies took that leap when they drafted him in the fourth round of the 2019 draft. If the Rockies had any doubts about selecting him that high, those doubts were erased when he went on to slash .383/.477/.611 with eight homers, 33 RBI, and 17 steals in 51 games at Rookie ball.

He then quickly rose through the minor league system before making his debut with the Rockies last year.

The Tools

• Hit

Doyle is a mixed bag when it comes to his hit tool. The upside is his ability to show he can make adjustments. After COVID wiped out the 2020 season, the Rockies assigned him to High-A and he slashed .280/.336/.454 with 16 homers, 47 RBI, and 21 steals in 97 games.

His numbers dipped in 2022 between Double-A and Triple, but he proved he didn’t belong in Triple-A in 2023 when he started the season with five homers and eight RBI in the first 12 games. That earned him a promotion to Colorado.

His first season with the Rockies was interesting. The good side was the fact he hit 10 homers, drove in 48 runs, and stole 22 bases in 126 games. The bad side was a slash line of .203/.250/.343 with a 35% strikeout rate and 5% walk rate. Strikeouts have always been an issue with Doyle as he had a 29.8% strikeout rate in the minors.

However, through the first month of the season, Doyle has improved that strikeout rate as it stands at 30% right now. Not a great number, but an improvement, nonetheless. Additionally, nearly all of his hitting percentile rankings are better now than last season. After hitting .230 against the fastball last year and .151 against breaking pitches, he is currently slashing .333/.211 against those pitches. And against offspeeed pitches, his average has gone from .256 to .444 right now.

Doyle is still a work in progress, but he is showing the improvement everyone wanted to see and I believe it will continue.

• Power

There is no questioning Doyle’s power potential. The righty can hit some impressive home runs, like this one. He stands a little upright, allowing him to take advantage of his raw power that he is still learning to tap into.

In basically a full season of major league experience he has 13 homers and 56 RBI. As he acclimates himself more to major league pitching, I see a future where he hits 20-plus homers.

• The Speed

Like many of the hitters I have highlighted this season, Doyle possesses speed. He stole 52 bags during his 159-game college career and added 62 steals in 74 attempts in the minors. So far with the Rockies he has 26 career steals in 32 attempts, an 81% success rate. Thanks to the rules limiting pickoffs and teams realizing that the stolen base can now be a weapon once again, I fully expect Doyle to reach at least 20 steals and likely 30 this season.

The Verdict

Obviously, you know my verdict when it comes to Doyle or else I wouldn’t write about him. He is still a bit raw at this point and I wouldn’t be surprised to see his average drop down to the .280-.285 range as his current BABIP of .423 is not sustainable. That said, he is more than capable of making adjustments at the plate, leading me to believe that that .280-.285 range will be the floor for him and not his ceiling.

The power will increase, and playing at Coors Field can’t hurt. But it has not been a huge help yet. Of his 13 career homers, eight have come at Coors Field. And his slash line is actually worse at home than on the road. In 78 home games, Doyle is slashing .207/.261/.385 while on the road those numbers are .241/.281/.355.

Doyle is not going to be a superstar. If he was, he wouldn’t be an up-and-coming dynasty player. But he has the tools to be a very successful fantasy baseball player on your team and should be someone to keep an eye on.