Franmil Reyes, 2021 Fantasy Sleeper

I sorted Steamer projections by home runs, and did one of those skimming jobs I’m famous for. You didn’t know I was a famous skimmer? Oh, yeah, worked as a pool boy for five summers in my youth without the use of a net. I once skimmed the 729-tome A People’s History of the United States, and fifteen minutes later, came away with a working knowledge that Taft was fat. Splendid, very astute skimmer, I am. Skimming the Steamer projections, notably by home runs, led me to find a few gems for sleeper posts, but I thought you’d throw tomatoes at me if I wrote one on Pete Alonso, and I didn’t want to write one on Yordan Alvarez, because I think he’s accurately priced considering injury. Which brings us to Franmil Reyes, and the first time (at least that I can remember) that I’ve written a sleeper post for a utility-only hitter. As mentioned last week in my position eligibility for 2021 fantasy baseball, not a ton (palindrome!) of guys have multi-position eligibility this year. So, natch — snatch? — there’s a lot of guys with Utility-only eligibility. Speaking of snatches, maybe Franmil gets time in the outfield this year to make some, and get that eligibility. Where did you think I was going with ‘speaking of snatches?’ Oh. I see. I say he could see time in the outfield, because Cleveland currently has zero outfielders that have done anything of note, and they’re supposedly sellers. Unless Google was right when I looked up UTIL., and found a Urinary-Tract-Infection-Lingering, and I need to rethink everything. So, what can we expect from Franmil Reyes for 2021 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Up front, Franmil Reyes is a sleeper, because he’s being drafted way too late. There’s no way he should be going around 150th overall in drafts. He’s a 40-homer hitter. Without too much effort, if I’m being honest. But we’ll say he’s a 35-homer hitter. You know how many hitters hit 35 homers last year? Okay, trick question, but Steamer projections has five players projected for 40 homers: Alonso, Acuña, Giancarlo, Trout and Bellinger. Throw out Giancarlo, because he threw out his hip reading this. I don’t necessarily agree Acuña is an easy forty-homer hitter either, which is what I think when I hear projected for 40 homers — easy. Don’t get me wrong, Acuña obviously can hit 40. I’d add Joey Gallo, Sano, Yordan and Franmil as easy 40 homer hitters. Gallo and Sano obviously have big contact issues. Yordan is solid, but coming off a major injury. Then that leaves us with Franmil Reyes — the $54 Vending Machine Steak.

Franmil Reyes doesn’t have contact issues, even though he’s been unfairly thought of that way. He hit .275 last year in 211 ABs, and he has a top 10% exit velocity two years running. He slammy-pammies fastballs so hard that people have to have a screw loose to throw him one, but eventually they do. He had a .324 BA on fastballs, seeing them 52.7% of the time. He was beaten by breaking stuff this past year, but there’s so many jokers in the majors throwing junk — junkers? — I’m not worried about Franmil sitting fastball. There’s no speed, unless we count his time in a line where it’s announced, “The buffet ends in 15 minutes.” There’s no splits issues here either. There’s no playing time issue. Franmil is a 40-homer, .270 hitter. Count on your hand how many of those you’re drafting after the top 100 overall. I’ll start, Franmil. That’s it. Okay, maybe Jorge Soler, which is why I almost wrote a post on him. But it’s limited, yo. Also, Franmil is only 25 years old! He could become a perennial 50-homer hitter with a .270 average. Giancarlo is being drafted before because some drafters fell asleep five years ago, and have yet to wake. Some are taking Just Dong Martinez prior to Franmil because “GO SAWX!” I guess. I don’t know why. People are drafting Teoscar 100 picks before Franmil, and, while I love Teoscar Hernandez, 100 picks before? What? Seriously, I’m so confused. For 2021, I’ll give Franmil Reyes projections of 84/40/96/.267 in 572 ABs with a chance for more, though I have projected him for close to his ceiling. But he’s a big guy, he can handle it.