When we look at what players produced in 2024, it is easy to focus on the complete image. But sometimes there is a late finish that could highlight a player moving in the right direction.
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Let’s take a look at some of the players who took steam in the last stages of last season, and try to understand what it could mean for 2025.
All on board the Cruz train – the other
In pre-season, we wondered about the battle of probable superiority between the central stars of NL Elly de la Cruz and Oneil Cruz. The card turned into a rout – Elly took off, Oneil really did not do it. This is at least the story of the full season – Cruz has actually had a clever race if you look at the last part of the year.
Here is what Cruz has published during its last 70 games, 66 departures: a .283 / .356 / .477 Slash, nine circuits and a perfect 16 for 16 on theft. It was n ° 9 of the fantastic stop in value 5×5 during this period.
The usual things were at stake during this wave. Cruz withdrew less, walking more, controlled his bats better. The development curve is different for everyone. Hopefully the transition to the outer field this year does not derail Cruz, because I think it is a fun choice in the Top-45 range while it enters its 26-year season.
We cannot ignore “Suárez” in the second half “
While Cruz is a younger player, Eugenio Suárez is a veteran in Arizona. He enters his 33 year old season. We must know what it is and is not now.
But there is this Suárez thing in the second half that he often gives us. Last year, he jumped 20 circuits after the stars break, with a huge .307 / .341 / .602 Slash. In 2019, he summoned a ridiculous 29 circuits after the break. Its production has been better in the second period for seven of the last eight seasons (we do not have the truncated season of the 2020s, of course).
I do not know the logical explanation for this, but it is too big for me to ignore it. Some guys are not sharp at the opening of the season. Maybe it is linked to weather conditions. Maybe it’s related to packaging. I just know when a player does something so regularly, I’m going to take him into account, a little.
It is as good as Suárez is in a neutral stadium like Arizona, after working in Seattle for two years. It helps. It is an interesting target around choice 172 in Global ADP.
Value in the head man for fish
The Marlins have no offense at destination in 2025. It looks like one of the five worst baseball teams, and certainly the worst team of the NL East. But Xavier Edwards was a bright point in the second half of last year, giving us a delicious 70 games: .328 / .397 / .423, with 39 points and 31 interceptions. He was only caught four times.
Edwards has never been a sparkling perspective, but he fell in love The top 100 on a few boards Before its ascent to the majors. And what he did in minors for six seasons drew our attention: .313 / .385 / .399, with 119 interceptions in 151 attempts. I think the marlins will park Edwards at the top of the order and let him run when he wishes. If Current 157 ADP with nfc sticksI am very interested in the Miami stopping stop.
A is attached to Butler at the end of last year – maybe you should also
Athletics is heading to the Grand Grand Open this season, a Uncharted territory. They will be in a minor league stadium in Sacramento, a courtyard that probably cannot be worse for the offensive than the Oakland Ballpark. Brent Rooker is the choice of destination obvious here. But note how much Lawrence Butler was dynamic when the team finally committed to him last year.
Butler opened the year in Oakland and was not ready, totaling an oblique bar of .179 / .281 / .274 for about six weeks. The demotion of minors was deserved. But when Butler resurfaced in mid-June, the story took off. It was a monster .291 / .330 / .565 the rest of the path, with 20 circuits and 15 for 15 on the bases. He scored 55 points on this period, led in 50.
If you consider all the offensive players of June 18 – the day of Butler’s reminder – until the end of the year, Butler presents himself as an offensive player n ° 11 in value 5×5. (Rooker, moreover, was n ° 3. And our friend Suárez was n ° 8.)
Butler was Oakland’s leading man in the past three months, and assume that he keeps this concert all the time 2025. The combos with electric speed are always strongly targeted on the recovery table. In fact, I think this original Oakland list could flirt with 0,500 baseball in 2025 if the nomadic lifestyle does not hold them. The global ADP of Butler has around 72But given what he showed in the second half of 2025, this allows room for lucrative purposes.
