Jesse Winker: The Most Underrated Player in Fantasy Baseball

The Cincinnati Reds. The first couple images that pop into your head are most likely of, Joey Votto, Pete Rose, Aroldis Chapman, etc. But why not Jesse Winker? Winker has gotten off to an insane start to the season, and nobody is talking about it. Mostly due to the Reds horrific start to the season. Welcome to the Jesse Winker profile page, below you will find every reason to stash Jesse Winker in your league.

1. Eye. Jesse Winker has one of the best eyes in baseball, having a walk rate of 18.2 which is well above the MLB average of 8.0. According to FanGraphs.com a walk rate of 15.0 is excellent and their highest rank. Winker only swings at 19.3% of pitches outside the strike zone, and when the ball is in the strike zone, he makes contact 90.2% of the time. Winker’s swing percentage sits at 37.3 which is well below the MLB average of 46%. Winker is a cautious hitter that has an unbelievable ability to stay disciplined while in the batter’s box.

2. Constantly making contact. Winker’s contact percentage sits at 86.3%. As I said before, when the ball is in the strike zone, Winker makes contact. Not only does he make contact, but 36.1% of the time he is hitting the ball hard and only makes soft contact 14% of the time. Winker would continue to grab my eye by having a jaw-dropping 5.3 swinging strike percentage. Which means 5% of the time Winker is swinging and missing. One thing managers always love seeing is a player who has a walk rate that’s higher than his strikeout rate, and with a walk rate of 18.2 and a strikeout rate of only 16.9 Winker is one of the more reliable bats in all of baseball.

3. Efficiency. Winker’s offensive efficiency rating is sitting at a solid 3.1, last year his offensive efficiency rating sat at 5.7 but only with 131 AB’s. The biggest thing I like about Winker is he hits leadoff, especially with Joey Votto leading off, I think there is a ton of opportunities for runs to be scored. Especially if you are rewarded for walks, Winker is one of the biggest sleepers in all of fantasy baseball. Winker is only owned in 5% of ESPN leagues, and I don’t know if there is going to be many opportunities for RBI’s or Home Runs, but I do know that Winker will be on base a lot. When you have a player that gets on base a lot and makes contact while not striking out. You have a very productive player. That’s exactly what Jesse Winker is.

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