The Top 10 Players Who Need a Big 2022 Season
By: Enoc Nieves
Tags: MLB, Baseball, Top 10

The Top 10 Players Who Need a Big 2022 Season

A list of players who need to come up huge for their clubs in the upcoming season Enoc Nieves Dec 27, 2021·7 min read

Christian Yelich (left) and Cody Bellinger (right) pose for a picture at the 2019 All-Star Game workout day in Cleveland, Ohio. || Twitter: @Brewers

When the 2021 Major League Baseball season started, there was a sense of optimism about the performance of certain teams and players. After the 2020 pandemic-shortened season ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers raising the Commissioner’s Trophy before a limited crowd at newly-opened Globe Life Park, many around the game believed that there was a high probability of seeing a World Series champion go back-to-back for the first time since 2000. Also, the consensus was that Mike Trout was going for his fourth MVP award, and that the New York Mets would run away with the National League East division at some point in the season. Neither happened. Mike Trout was sidelined with a calf strain injury for most of the year, and the Atlanta Braves pulled off an improbable run after the July trade deadline that ended with the team winning their first title in 26 years.

Indeed, 2021 has been a year of the improbable -not impossible- in baseball. Who predicted Shohei Ohtani achieving in 2021 what only Babe Ruth had done in 100 years? Who would have thought that the Braves would win it all after losing arguably their best player at the time -Ronald Acuña Jr.- with a torn ACL in July? There were certainly many improbable feats in the game; some of them impressive and great, others not so much. The latter is the case of the following list of players, who were projected -or expected- to have monster years in 2021, yet their inability to stay healthy or poor performance make them indebted of responding with a big 2022 campaign for the sake of their clubs:

10. Ian Happ (Cubs)

After his outstanding rookie season in 2017, Happ was widely considered the heir of the Cubs outfield throne. All he’s done is show regression ever since. Even though he was able to stay in the field this year (148 games played), he struggled big time at the plate (.226/.323./.434 slash line) and didn’t add value at all defensively (-0.6 dWAR). If he can return to his rookie-year form, the Cubbies might end up getting something good in return if they decide to move him should they decide to keep rebuilding.

9. Patrick Corbin (Nationals)

The 2019 World Series champions have since parted ways with key components of that historic run. They are still stuck with Corbin, who’s set to enter year number four of the six-year deal he inked with the Nats prior to the title-clinching season. The team was not in a good place to compete in 2021, and Corbin didn’t offer much help by posting a 5.82 ERA and leading the majors with 16 losses. He desperately needs to regain his 2019 form. It could be the only way for him to earn his keep in the rotation.

8. Alex Bregman (Astros)

Do you remember MVP-candidate Alex Bregman? I do. He was terrific for the American League champions in 2019 (and the years prior), but a discreet 2020 and an injury-riddled 2021 have severely downgraded his status as one of the premier third-basemen in the game. He only participated in 91 games this year, and his performance in the Postseason was mediocre at best. He underwent wrist surgery this offseason and is expected to be ready for Spring Training. In 2022, the Astros will need Alex Bregman to be his version of the Alex Bregman that we saw prior to the sign-stealing investigation if they want to remain a powerhouse in the AL; especially if they let Carlos Correa walk.

7. Carlos Santana (Royals)

He has never been the kind of player in whose hands you’d put the fate of your franchise, but the value that Santana brought to championship-contending teams in the past decade went beyond his slash line or power numbers. Nonetheless, I’m sure the Royals were expecting way more than a 79 OPS+ and a -0.2 rWAR when they inked the veteran first-baseman on a two-year deal prior to the 2021 season. After spending a year in Philadelphia, his best season came in 2019 at 33, when he returned to Cleveland. He was named an All-Star, finishing with 34 home runs, and posting career-highs in RBIs (93) and OPS+ (136). It’s hard to imagine that, at 36, he’d be able to recreate such a season, but if he isn’t able to put up a solid year, it might be the end of the line for him.

6. Aaron Nola (Phillies)

Three years removed from a NL Cy Young Award contention, the righty from Baton Rouge, Louisiana hasn’t performed the way fans in South Philly would like him to. Unable to reach 200 innings in 2021, Nola posted a 4.63 ERA, a 90 ERA+, and faced less than 800 batters for the first time since 2017 (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season), after leading the National League in that category in 2019. If the Phillies really want to pursue a spot in the Postseason, they are going to need Nola to have a monster year on the mound. A 2018-version of Nola in 2022 should make him and Zack Wheeler a scary 1–2 top-of-the-rotation combo in the NL East, and that’s exactly what the Phillies need right now.

5. Francisco Lindor (Mets)

Coming from a small-market team to play in the spotlight of New York is never an easy transition for any player. Lindor already knows that. He learned it the hard way (probably). He was nowhere near the player he was in Cleveland, and I’m sure the Mets would’ve liked to have the Indians-version of Lindor in the first few months of the season instead of the “biggest-slump-of-your-career” version that they got (.209/.311/.336 slash line until June 18th). There were spans in which he got hot, but couldn’t keep it up. As he enters his 28-year-old season (the first of a 11-year/$341 million extension he signed prior to the start of the 2021 campaign), the four-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove shortstop knows he needs to be better than average. The Mets will go as he goes in 2022.

4. Yu Darvish (Padres)

A year after being the runner-up for the National League Cy Young Award, Darvish didn’t find his rhythm in his first season in San Diego. Acquired via trade in the offseason, the Japanese-born right-hander struggled with command, as his Base on Balls Percentage went up from 4.7% in 2020 to 6.5% in 2021. He also gave up home runs on 4.1% of his opponents’ plate appearances, after allowing round-trippers in only 1.7% of those instances a year ago. He posted a sub-100 ERA+ for the second time in his career; the first one being in 2018 when he only pitched in eight games. He also registered a quality start in only 43% of his games pitched (league average is 45%). If he can manage to get quality starts with more consistency (50% or more) in 2022, the Padres would absolutely be pleased with it.

3. DJ LeMahieu (Yankees)

How can a guy go from leading the league in hitting one year to being an offensive disaster the next season? That’s pretty much what happened to the former two-time batting champion. LeMahieu terrorized AL East pitching in his first two seasons in the Bronx. He paced the majors with a .364 batting average in 2020, but his batting average plummeted almost 100 points in 2021. After signing a six-year/$90 million extension with the Yankees, he hasn’t found the magic at the plate that made him one of the best pure hitters in baseball. LeMahieu posted a below-league-average 97 OPS+ to go along with a 1.5 rWAR (3.3 is his 162-game average). A well-know elite defender, he also struggled with the glove this year (-4 DRS, -0.2 dWAR). This better not become the norm for him.

2. Christian Yelich (Brewers)

The 2018 National League MVP hasn’t been the same since he fouled a pitch off his knee during the final month of the 2019 season. The Brewers signed him after that to a nine-year/$215 million extension, and they must be regretting it, since Yelich only registered a .205 battting average in 2020, and followed it with a 99 OPS+ in 2021; the worst of his career. Yelich dealt with a back injury this year, as well as spending time in the restricted list because of COVID-19. He hit 80 home runs and collected a 171 OPS+ in a two-year span prior to the extension. He has rounded the bases 21 times and slashed .234/.360/.392 ever since. A dude who looked like he was on the verge of becoming the face of the National League alonside Cody Bellinger (more about him next) now seems to be a player about to fall off a cliff. If he doesn’t respond, the Brewers might find themselves in a position to blow things up and start from scratch because of it.

1. Cody Bellinger (Dodgers)

After putting up a monstrous 2019 season, Bellinger took home the NL MVP award. He, like Yelich, looked like a player who was about to take the league by storm in the upcoming years, then came unfortunate injuries. With three trips to the injured list in 2021, Bellinger was limited to only 95 games… and sucked at them. In 350 plate appearances, he slashed .165/.240/.302, while only posting a 45 OPS+. That’s not acceptable, even for a bench player. He also struck out in 30% of his at-bats. If he’s fully healthy in 2022, he won’t have a choice but to get back to being a top-3 player in the National League and lead the Dodgers offense in almost every offensive category, just like he did in 2019. Any less than that won’t do the trick.

Honorable mentions:

Gleyber Torres, Matt Chapman, Dinelson Lamet, Trevor Story, Anthony Rendón.