Hey there 👋 I'm flying solo today on a short slate of MLB games. We're going to start entering the stage of the season where we can start making some bolder moves on players based on the growing sample of plate appearances, and I did that with Ben Rice.

Major League Baseball

Covered by Smada

💣💣 Kameron Misner, CF TB (MLB)

3-for-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB

It feels like yesterday when I wrote about Misner and his walkoff home run on Opening Day. Since then, due to the Josh Lowe injury, Misner has started in a strong side platoon nearly every day in CF. He’s taken full advantage of that opportunity with extra-base-hits in half of his starts, capped with the Double Dong yesterday. He’s now hit 3 HR and gotten 1 SB over his 45 PA and while there haven’t been many walks, he’s had a tremendous decrease in K% and SwStr% from his historical output in the minor leagues. The Z-Contact is an insane 96% which is like Steven Kwan level and 7th in the league, minimum 40 PA. The zone contact performance is so drastically different that while he'll fall back to earth to a degree, some of it has got to stick. Also, as a club, the Rays have the largest zone contact improvement year over year. Perhaps some coaching? Perhaps the new home park? Perhaps a new stance? (H/T @RaysMetrics)  Either way, Misner has gone from a fallen prospect to potential above-average strong side platoon outfielder very quickly.