Welcome back to Week 16 of our Patience or Panic series, where we take a look at three struggling players and provide recommendations on how you should react to their slow starts and subpar performance. This week, I’ll be breaking down three popular players (roster rates of 75% or higher in 12+ team leagues) that have struggled recently, mainly in the current month of July.
As always, feel free to let us know in the comments or by tagging us on social media what players you would like to see us focus on in the future! Let’s dive right in.
Max Fried, LHP, New York Yankees
Fried, 31, started off his first campaign in pinstripes in spectacular fashion, helping him return to Atlanta for this year’s All-Star festivities. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however, especially as we inched closer to the break where he seemed to hit a production block.
Fried’s Q-BP% was sliced in half thanks to an increase in BP%, he’s making slightly more mistakes (2%), the PLA is up over a full run, and his whiff%/CSW% numbers have noticeably regressed.
Verdict: patience. Even over the course of his struggles, Fried has posted quality EV (84 mph), barrel% (6%), and HH% (29%) numbers… all better than his season average. This is a $218 million ace we’re talking about. In reality, this is just a slight bump in the road for the southpaw. It’ll take a lot more than just a few starts leading into the All-Star Break for me to seriously contemplate dropping Fried.
Bryan Reynolds, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates
Reynolds, 30, hasn’t played up to par at all this season. He had an uber-sluggish start, then appeared to find it in late June, but the production came crashing down after. He’s been borderline DFA-able since then.
Reynolds has quite literally been the worst qualified position player in baseball since his mini hot streak in late June. He ranks dead last in nearly every category, with only Brooks Lee and Anthony Volpe are competing with him for that crown. It’s bad.
Verdict: panic. There are so many cheap outfield options that can provide better, let alone positive production for your teams right now. The good news here is that the xStats (.270 xBA, .489 xSLG, .351 xwOBA) help me infer he may return to form at some point. Maybe a new home at the deadline will help that cause? In the meantime, it’s time to seek other options.
Steven Kwan, OF, Cleveland Guardians
Kwan, 27, enjoyed a nifty first half that notched him a second straight All-Star Game appearance. Things haven’t been going well for him recently, though:
Kwan has a 50 wRC+ in the month of July, and his 64 wRC+ ranks fifth worst in baseball (min. 11o PA) since June 14th. It’s been a clear struggle BABIP-wise.
Verdict: patience. I’m a huge fan of Kwan’s and similar to Fried, this is just a bump in the road for a quality big league player. Despite his struggles, Kwan’s K%, zCon%, and whiff% remain in check, the EVs and ICR are around the same, and the xStats are on his side (+0.5 xBABIP difference). It’s just a matter of time before he finds his footing again.
Photo courtesy of Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Aaron Polcare (@abeardoesart on Bluesky and X)
