Kevin Kiermaier and Matt Holliday are about as polar opposite as you can get in a real-world baseball player. Kiermaier's known for his defense, and Holliday is moving to the American League so he can hold down a designated-hitter role for the New York Yankees. Despite those differences, they're both really solid late-round fantasy options.
With Kiermaier, much of the optimism stems from some big strides when he was healthy in 2016. Check out the table below, which compares his peripheral stats then to what he did in 2015. This is all while stealing a career-high 21 bases in just 414 plate appearances.
| Season | Walk Rate | Strikeout Rate | Hard-Hit Rate | Fly-Ball Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4.5% | 17.8% | 24.6% | 29.3% |
| 2016 | 9.7% | 17.9% | 31.4% | 37.6% |
His batted-ball data went through the roof while his strikeout rate remained stagnant. Add in a heavy walk rate, which will give Kiermaier more opportunities to swipe bags. He's a late-round guy with decent safety and huge upside.
Holliday also had some solid peripherals last year with a 38.5% hard-hit rate and 35.9% fly-ball rate. Instead of playing at pitcher-friendly Busch Stadium, though, he'll be taking his talents to Yankee Stadium, where the stands overrunneth with homers. Operating as the designated hitter should help with his health, and as the team's projected clean-up hitter, we should be looking his way.
Other candidates: Domingo Santana, Mitch Haniger, Manuel Margot