Fantasy Baseball Deep leagues: Nick Delmonico is a sleeper pick

Rebuilding teams offer the potential for lesser-known players to grab playing time opportunities and produce unexpected fantasy value. Nick Delmonico could be a fantasy star in deep leagues.

The path to the majors was tricky to negotiate for Nick Delmonico, including a 50-game suspension for a positive test for an attention-deficit disorder drug. He was viewed as a failed prospect and wasn’t even protected by the White Sox against the Rule-5 draft. Sometimes the more struggles that a player has to overcome, the greater their appreciation when the opportunity arises.

He made his MLB debut on August 1 and embarked on an impressive stretch of hitting nine home runs with 23 RBI over his 43-game stint at the highest level.

The 25-year-old played left field and designated hitter and is expected to compete for playing time in both positions for the White Sox. Roster Resource tabs Delmonico as the Opening Day DH, hitting sixth behind Jose Abreu, Avisail Garcia and Welington Castillo.

He was a top-40 hitter last season on a ‘per at-bat’ basis, and although it is unfair to expect Delmonico to maintain this production across a full season, the stat shows intriguing fantasy potential, especially considering his 480 ADP.

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It is rare that a player experiencing the majors for the first time, shows the patience and maturity to walk 14% of the time while still producing impressive power.

Delmonico joined an exclusive group headlined by Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado and Rhys Hoskins, of hitters with high Z-Contact% (contact rate when swinging at balls in the strike zone), while posting an Isolated Power mark of at least .220.

If Delmonico can keep getting on-base, then he offers the White Sox the option of moving him ahead of their trio of sluggers, giving the opportunity for a significant boost in counting stats. Only Avisail Garcia with his .330/.380/.506 slash posted a higher OBP on the White Sox than the former sixth rounder.

Delmonico was saddled with .277 BABIP, his lowest while in the White Sox organization, so even if his home run tally drops due to normalization of his 22.5% HR/FB rate, he should enjoy an uptick in his batting average.

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For deep leagues, you need to watch the roster management of the Tigers, Marlins and White Sox. All three rebuilding teams will give opportunities to low-profile hitters. If Delmonico gets 500 plate appearances, he will have a fantasy impact in all leagues, not only deep leagues. If he is restricted to less than 300 plate appearances, then he should still return value for his draft day position.

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