Nick Ahmed

Ahmed continued his modest improvement at the plate, registering an increasing wRC+ for the fourth straight season. Ahmed is still a slightly-below-average batter, but he chips in with a few steals and is durable, missing only six games since 2018. Ahmed's glove remains solid as he finished sixth among qualified shortstops with four defensive runs saved. Ahmed's Statcast percentile rankings are mostly below average, but an above-average contact rate and 81st percentile sprint speed offer a bankable BA floor. Not only is shortstop loaded at the top, it's become deep with reliable, high-floor options like Ahmed lengthening the pool. He's not sexy, but Ahmed adds a sense of stability to a fantasy roster, compiling a little of everything.

Defense may not "count" in fantasy baseball, but it is tied closely to playing time, and in Ahmed's case, his stellar defense afforded his bat a lot of time to come along. Ahmed's bat will never be as good as his glove, but he has made significant strides over the last two years after at one point looking like a lost cause at the plate, with wRC+ marks ranging from 34-76 over his first four MLB seasons (100 is average). Ahmed has trimmed his chase rate by a whopping 10 percentage points since 2017 while still swinging at roughly half of the pitches he sees and swinging at even more pitches in the zone. He's lifted his walk rate from 5.6% to 8.3% since 2017 while nearly tripling his barrel rate (to 6.6% in 2019). The steals aren't really bankable as he enters his 30s and it's not a star profile, but his offensive improvements are real and his defense should assure the volume is there again in 2020.

Ahmed was finally able to stay healthy in 2018, playing in a career-high 153 games after making just 143 appearances from 2016-17. The 28-year-old enjoyed a career year after breaking camp as Arizona's starting shortstop. He lived up to his billing as an elite defender, tying Andrelton Simmons for the most defensive runs saved (21) at the position en route to winning his first Gold Glove. Ahmed wasn’t as successful on offense, however, finishing 16% worse than league average at the dish. His .234/.290/.411 line was a step down across the board from his 2017 triple-slash, though he did manage to set new personal bests with 16 homers, 54 extra-base hits, 70 RBI and 61 runs. Ahmed’s glove should keep him from falling into a platoon despite his career .596 OPS against same-handed pitching, and his improved power production, which he credits to a change in approach, should keep him relevant as a middle-infield option in deeper leagues.

Ahmed suffered a hand injury in June that cost him most of the second half, and while playing in rehab games at Triple-A in the final stages of his recovery, he was hit in the wrist by a pitch, which caused a fracture that ended his season. Heralded as a good defender, Ahmed can play anywhere in the infield as needed, which gives him value to the D-backs as a late-inning sub off the bench, and as an occasional spot starters against left-handed pitching. He took a small step forward as a hitter last season, putting together the best slash line of his four seasons in Arizona (.251/.298/.419). Given the uncertainty about his playing time, and the limitations he has shown as a hitter, Ahmed is likely limited to middle-infield filler status in NL-only formats. It's expected that he'll begin spring training completely healthy after undergoing surgery to repair the fractured wrist in early September.

Ahmed has the look of one of those players who is much more valuable in real baseball than fantasy baseball. That's because fantasy baseball generally doesn't evaluate defense, which is where Ahmed really shines. At the plate, he's been nothing special in his three MLB seasons. He's a career .221 hitter who doesn't hit for much power or steal many bases. Working in Ahmed's favor is the fact that the Diamondbacks seem to value his glove enough to keep him in the lineup most days when healthy (he was shut down last August following hip surgery), so the volume should be there. But that's about all that can be said for Ahmed. Until he displays more life at the plate, he's really not someone worth owning. There are better hitting middle-infield options out there.

In his first full season in the majors, Ahmed was great in the field but subpar at the plate. The 25-year-old shortstop batted just .226, with an anemic .275 on-base percentage. Ahmed added nine home runs and four stolen bases, though he was also caught stealing five times. Defense doesn’t matter much in fantasy, so the hope is that Ahmed can progress offensively in 2016. He started slowly in 2015, but showed signs of life toward the end of the season, collecting hits in 15 of his last 50 plate appearances before being shut down due to a back injury. After the Diamondbacks acquired Jean Segura it was thought Ahmed might lose out on most of his playing time, but it sounds like they value his glove enough to move Segura to second base occasionally. Still, even if Segura wasn't in the picture, Ahmed would be unappealing. The onus will be on him to improve at the plate in 2016 before fantasy owners should feel compelled to invest.

Ahmed spent most of 2014 at Triple-A Reno, shuttling between second base and shortstop as part of the Diamondbacks' excess of middle-infield options. Chris Owings' shoulder injury in June cleared the path for Ahmed's big league debut, but he didn't hit enough to remain on the roster for the entire second half. In terms of tools, Ahmed projects as a steady contact hitter with very limited power. Defensively, he has the range and versatility to be an average or better option around the infield. The sum of those parts yields a regular destined to hit in the bottom third of the order failing the development of an elite eye at the plate (8.2% BB% at Triple-A in 2014), but Ahmed may prove capable stealing 15-20 bases annually provided that he doesn't occupy a place hitting directly in front of a pitcher. It would hardly be surprising to see him stick around in a utility role in 2015, as Ahmed has very little to gain by spending additional time in the Pacific Coast League.