Franchy Cordero -- CF, Red Sox
Key number: Career 12.4% barrel rate
Cordero has amassed just 315 plate appearances in four big league seasons, missing significant time with a right forearm strain, a right elbow sprain and a fractured right hamate bone. But in that small sample size, the 6-foot-3, 226-pound slugger has shown some impressive raw power. Nine of Cordero’s 12 career homers
have traveled 420 feet or more, including a 489-foot blast in 2018 that is
tied for the 12th-longest homer in Statcast history (since 2015).
The 26-year-old has recorded 22
barrels (batted balls with the optimal combination of exit velocity and launch angle) as a big leaguer, with a 12.4% barrel rate. To put that in perspective,
only 30 qualified hitters had a barrel rate of 12.4% or better in 2020. Cordero has shown a tendency to swing and miss, but after recording a 38.4% whiff rate and a 38.8% strikeout rate in his first three seasons, he lowered those marks to 20.2% and 9.5%, respectively, in 2020. It’s unclear how much playing time Cordero will get after
being traded from the Royals to the Red Sox last week, but it will be fun to watch him take aim at Fenway Park’s famous red seats in the right-field bleachers this season.
-- Thomas Harrigan