Royals Alex Gordon: What to make of his fast start?

It has been a long time since fantasy owners looked at Alex Gordon as a fantasy option. Yet, the Royals’ outfielder is off to a blazing start in 2018. What can fantasy owners make of the revival?

Alex Gordon was simply one of the worst hitters in the league last season. Between, looking lost at the plate and his power evaporating, Gordon managed to post an awful .208 AVG over 541 plate appearances for the Royals in 2017. He was well off fantasy radars, but now that he is showing signs of life, what should fantasy make of it?

Gordon’s career is quite an intriguing tale. The highly touted former prospect started his career looking like a bust. He then morphed into one of the best all-around outfielders in the game for a five-year stretch, subsequently received the largest contract handed out by the Royals, and then forgot how to hit.

There is no other way to paint Gordon’s 2017 as just an embarrassment. The Royals were better off not letting him take a bat to the plate, yet he garnered over 476 at-bats. Heading into 2018, he was so off fantasy radars that some probably even forgot he was in the league, and expectations were non-existent.

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In his defense, Gordon has battled a ton of injuries throughout his career, and even to start this season, he missed early time with a hip ailment. Since the calendar turned to May though, Gordon has swung the bat better than he has in years.

Over 14 games this month, he has a .308/3 HR/6 RBI/.879 OPS line and even capitalized his hot streak with a clutch homer off of Craig Kimbrel. Fantasy owners should be intrigued, yet need to dig deeper into his batted ball profile before making a decision on his fantasy value.

In terms of the positives, Gordon has struck out only 17% of the time, is posting a solid 24% LD rate, and he has raised his contact rate to over 81%. His Med contact rate of 55% and Hard contact rate of 32% are also back near his career norms.

The Royals worked with him to tweak his swing this offseason, so there are some tangible results that inspire confidence. Yet, there are still some red flags.

For one, Gordon’s 55% GB rate does not speak to him being able to get back close to 15 HR or even 30 doubles. His AVG is being influenced by him finding holes on the ground, and his 8% BB rate means that he is relying heavily on just making contact. Pitchers are also challenging him more in the zone as they do not see him as the threat he once was. He is seeing 54% of pitches thrown his way as fastballs and 50% of all pitches against him in the strike zone.

His batted ball profile upticks surely help him look like he once did, but there are still too many countering stats that should worry fantasy owners. Between the high GB rate, and pitchers surely bound to alter their approach against him, it is hard to see where he can sustain fantasy value.

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The Royals will bank of Gordon possibly having a resurgent type of season given the money they owe him and the lack of a solid supporting staff. Yet, fantasy owners can not take the limited results and make him a waiver wire add just yet