Mitch Haniger

Haniger went from feelings of torture to euphoria over the past two seasons. His 2019 season ended when he fouled a fastball off his unprotected family jewels in early June. His recovery was anything but smooth and sports hernia surgery led to him missing 2020, which made his 2021 season all the more amazing. Many players have career years at certain ages or after certain amounts of MLB exposure, but to have one after missing 1.5 seasons is truly incredible. The counting category production was league-winning for many considering where Haniger went in most drafts last year, yet his batting average and OBP numbers were both sharply lower than where he was in 2017 and 2018. Sure, he strikes out a little more and walks a bit less, but Haniger lacks some of the elite batted-ball rankings that other sluggers with his counting numbers show. Expect a tilt back to 2018 levels while admiring how special 2021 was for him.

Haniger has not appeared in a major-league game since June 6, 2019. A ruptured testicle sidelined Haniger initially and he battled back discomfort in the months that followed, leading to a pair of surgeries in the early months of 2020. The first was sports hernia surgery and the second was a microdiscectomy to repair a vertebrae in Haniger's lower back. He still had not been cleared to resume baseball activities when summer camp began and it soon became clear that Haniger would not be able to return during the shortened 2020 season. He was said to be increasing his lifting and workouts in September and it was reported in December that Haniger had finally resumed full baseball activities. The expectation is that Haniger will be the Mariners' starting right fielder in 2020. Seattle has committed $3.01 million to him in the hope he can still be something resembling the .267/.348/.480 hitter he was previously.

Haniger was off to a slow start, at least in the batting average department, slashing .220/.324/.463 after 63 games. He was striking out at an exaggerated 28.6% clip, by far his career worst. He did manage to club 15 homers, so all was not lost. However, on June 26, Haniger fouled a pitch off his groin and ruptured a testicle, ending his season. Haniger did play in a few rehab games in August, but a sore back shut him down. The prognosis is for Haniger to be completely healthy for spring training. It would have been helpful to see if Haniger cut down on the strikeouts as the season progressed. As is, formulaic projections could over-penalize him for underperforming in a small sample without the chance to right the ship. This could present a buying opportunity, especially since players missing several months to end the season are out of sight, out of mind or buried in draft room queues.

Haniger's 2018 season was what he could have done in 2017 had he not gotten hurt and missed a good chunk of time. His skills have been mostly stable over the past two seasons since he became an everyday major leaguer, and his offensive production has been at least 30% better than the league average. It is still too early in his career to see anything definitive in his splits, but he has been very good against righties and added dominance of lefties last year after showing some issues against them in 2017. He has had little trouble hitting at home or on the road. The turnover of the surrounding cast is a concern because Haniger will be asked to do more in a lineup that will be less than what it has been the past two seasons. He will have a tough time repeating the 183 runs-plus-RBI he had last year with a weaker supporting cast around him as the Mariners rebuild their roster in 2019.

Although it was his second season in the majors, 2017 was Haniger’s rookie season since he fell seven plate appearances shy of 130 in 2016. He had a solid season, but injuries limited his playing time. When he played, he showed above-average potential at the plate, slugging nearly .500 in a park that is typically better for pitchers than it is hitters. The oddity with Haniger is that he does a majority of his damage against fellow righties (16 of his career 21 homers have come against righties). It is too early to consider this the norm for him, but it is worth noting for daily transaction leagues since it is an anomaly. The other thing to watch for is his walk rate – which is real: the 11.2 percent rate in the first half or the 3.9 percent rate in the second? If the former is real, he can stick high in the lineup. If it is not, Haniger will drop to the bottom half.

Debuting in mid-August last season, Haniger mostly struggled in his first exposure to big-league pitching (81 wRC+) but he showed decent pop in the small sample (five home runs, .174 ISO in 123 plate appearances). This came on the heels of Haniger destroying upper-level pitching in the minors last season, posting a 156 wRC+ in 55 games at Double-A and 185 wRC+ in 74 games at Triple-A. The Mariners took notice and got him included in the Taijuan Walker/Jean Segura trade early in the offseason. The door is open for Haniger to work his way into a prominent role with Seattle and gain relevance in a wide variety of formats. There are worse ways to utilize a final bench spot in 15-team mixed leagues.

Haniger was dealt to Arizona from Milwaukee in exchange for Gerardo Parra at the trade deadline last year, and while he was a notable part of the Brewers’ farm system, that speaks more to Milwaukee’s lack of well-known prospects than to Haniger’s abilities. He slashed .255/.316/.416 in 67 games at Double-A Huntsville prior to the trade, and was only able to play eight games with the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate before the end of the minor league season. Haniger is the type of player that should be able to provide organizational corner outfield depth for several years, but he would need to take a significant step forward in order to ever offer much big-league upside. There’s a good chance he will spend much of 2015 at Double-A Mobile.

Haniger got his first professional season off to a quick start with Low-A Wisconsin, posting a .909 OPS over 41 games before earning a promotion to the next level. His numbers weren’t nearly as impressive at High-A, but he was one of the top players in the Arizona Fall League, and the former first-rounder has established himself as one of the Brewers’ better prospects. Expect Haniger, who split time between center field and right field last season, to open 2014 at High-A.