Mariners Mitch Haniger: Fantasy Must Add?

Mitch Haniger had a mini-breakout last season for the Mariners but injuries derailed him. After widely being passed over in drafts this spring, is Haniger’s hot start in 2018 a sign of things to come?

The Mariners have battled the injury bug all spring, and that has trickled into the 2018 season. Even Nelson Cruz could not avoid getting hurt after celebrating an HR today.  One bright note so far though, has been Mitch Haniger’s early performance.  After being a popular sleeper last year, is he now back in line to be a fantasy add?

We hyped up Mitch Haniger in 2017 as a possible breakout candidate. That prediction looked great for must of April, he posted a .342/4 HR/16 RBI/1.054 OPS line over 21 games, but a strained oblique ended his roll in late April. The injury cost him all of May, and it severely slowed him heading into June.

He was horrible in July, .176/1 HR/2 RBI/.512 OPS, and it looked as though there was no turning it around. He saw a little uptick in Aug., yet again he was slowed thanks to taking a 95 mph fastball to the face from Jacob deGrom.

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All things considered, he did a hell of a job salvaging his season thanks to a blistering Sept., .353/7 HR/14 RBI/.987 OPS. It was not the rookie season that fantasy owners had hoped for, yet there was enough to like to stay intrigued.

His 19% LD, 37% FB, 48% Med, and 35% Hard contact rates were solid in 2017. The raw power looked legit and appeared to match what scouts had projected. His 16 HR over only 96 games projects to well past 20 over a full season worth of at-bats.

Fantasy owners probably had Haniger off their sheets heading into 2018 thanks to the surplus of OF talent in the draft pool. It also did not help that he was battling a hand injury this spring, which clouded the picture. Yet, Haniger has come out of the gates swinging it over the first two games.

He has notched four hits in six at-bats, one being a homer, versus the Indians and the likes of Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco. Just like last April, Haniger is the hottest bat in the Mariners lineup. Now that Cruz is out for some time with an ankle issue, Haniger will surely move his way up the lineup and into prime more RBI spots.

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With the previous breakout predicted, his solid debut even though he was hurt, and now that he is back to squaring everything up, Mitch Haniger should be a must add off the waiver wire. The Mariners need him to step up, and the raw talent is still there, so owners would be remiss not to take the plunge again.