Middle infield has been underwhelming, to say the least, to kick off the 2023 season. Players we expected to start strong/breakout such as Gunnar Henderson, CJ Abrams, Vaughn Grissom haven’t hit much and don’t show too much signs of life. Brice Turang had one hot week and turned into a pumpkin. Thankfully, it’s a marathon of a season and as one door closes, other opportunities open up, so let’s take a look at some potential middle infield breakouts that have come from some unexpected places and players that were not really drafted, even in deep leagues:
Taylor Walls – Tampa Bay Rays: To date, Walls is batting 19/5/11/.276/.375/6, eligible at 2B, 3B, SS, rostered in 53% of Yahoo leagues, and quietly on pace for a 25/25 season. Walls doesn’t have a permanent defensive home with the Rays but sees consistent playing time all over the infield. Earlier in his career, Walls was a glove-first player and his contributions at the plate looked similar to a late-career Chris Davis, but some early season tweaks in his batting stance this year have seemed to pay dividends, as his bat path is flatter through the zone this season. Walls always had a solid chase rate, and this season his line drive rate is 22.4%, and he has a +3 run value on fastballs after having a -7 run value on them last season. While you can’t count on Walls for power (3.4 barrel%), Walls is showing marked improvement in the other facets of his game, including making more contact in the zone and cutting his K% from the 25-27% range of years past down to 20.5%. The elevated BABIP is sure to cool, but as Walls should not be in a strict platoon, a 20/20 season is well within reach and is still free in roughly half of Yahoo leagues. A positive for Walls: Vidal Brujan remains banished in AAA, and Curtis Mead is dealing with a slow start to his season and may be injured.
Ezequiel Duran – Texas Rangers: Another 2B, 3B, SS eligible player, this time rostered in 40% of Yahoo leagues, Duran is similar to Walls in the sense that he had an underwhelming start to his career, and earlier in the season had some timeshare issues, but some changes have him off to a hot start in 2023, batting 10/3/14/.313/.345/2. As long as Duran keeps hitting, he will be in the lineup as the Rangers have already come out and said Duran will be in the lineup even when Corey Seager returns. I don’t see any pronounced mechanical tweaks to his swing or batting stance like Taylor Walls. Let’s get the negatives out of the way first, Duran will not help you in an OBP league (1.2 BB%) and he won’t help you in homers (6.6 barrel%), but like Walls, he has made strides in other facets of his game, increasing his line-drive rate to 24.6%, he’s up to 6th in the Rangers lineup (that sneakily has four batters in the top 10 AL RBI leaders), and is contributing across the board of roto categories. Again, like Walls, the BABIP is sure to regress, but as the weather warms up and the ball starts flying out of Globe Life Ballpark with more regularity, it’s not crazy to see Ezequiel Duran as a top-100 bat. I believe our player rater has Zeke as a top-1oo asset. A nice return from the Yankees for Joey Gallo.
Both players are similar in their breakout profiles and positional versatility and are in good hitting environments to accrue plenty of counting stats throughout the rest of the season. If I had to choose between Taylor Walls or Ezequiel Duran, Duran’s 1.2% walk rate swings my choice over to Walls.
What do you think? Sound off in the comments.
