The beauty of dynasty baseball is that one player can be viewed in multiple ways. This is why rankings tend to get wonky for players once they are outside the top 50 or so.
One of the players who is ranked all over the place is Chas McCormick of the Houston Astros. In my Dynasty rankings, I have him at No. 112. CBS comes in with a ranking of #165 for McCormick while the good folks here at Razzball ranked him at #220 and ESPN comes in at 248. So four rankings with a variance of 126 spots.
I can understand the wide difference. McCormick has never been a full-time player as the most games he has ever played in is 119 and the 457 plate appearances he had last year were a career high. Former Astros manager Dusty Baker refused to put him into the lineup every day last season, limiting his playing time and numbers.
But I think McCormick is being overlooked by a lot of dynasty owners. He isn’t going to carry your team, but he is a solid player who will put up good numbers and be a reason why you win.
So let’s take a look at this week’s Up-and-Coming Dynasty Player.
(Editor’s Note: We have a few spots left in our Razzball Commenter Leagues drafting this month, including some money leagues, like this one for $20 against Truss drafting TONIGHT at 10 PM ET – Click to join!)
Career Statistics
| YEAR | GAMES | RS | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 108 | 47 | 14 | 50 | 4 | .257 | .319 | .447 | 107 |
| 2022 | 119 | 47 | 14 | 44 | 4 | .245 | .332 | .407 | 111 |
| 2023 | 115 | 59 | 22 | 70 | 19 | .273 | .353 | .489 | 130 |
| 162 AVG | 72 | 24 | 78 | 13 | .259 | .336 | .449 | 117 |
When McCormick was in the lineup last season, he produced, slashing .273/.353/.489 with 22 home runs, 70 RBI, and 19 steals. Eligible at all three outfield spots, new manager Joe Espada has stated that McCormick will be an everyday outfielder this season and is expected to get most of his time in left field. Among left fielders last season, he ranked in the top 15 in homers (10th), RBI (14th), SB (9th), AVG (15th), OBP (15th) and SLG (10th). His .842 OPS ranked 8th as did his 130 OPS+.
I know he won’t play 162 games this season, but the 162-game average allows for an easy apples-to-apples comparison to other players and provides an easy way to do the math of what would a player do over an entire season. It is not perfect, but it is a nice metric, and it shows McCormick as a 24 homer, 78 RBI player during his career. That is solid production.
In the last three seasons McCormick has increased his OBP and OPS+ each season, and last year he took advantage of the new pickoff rules last season, swiping 19 bags in 25 attempts.
His Advanced Numbers
When you look at some of McCormick’s StatCast numbers, there are some contrarian numbers. His xBA ranks in the 34th percentile, his Avg. EV ranks only in the 23rd percentile and his Hard-Hit% is in the 37th percentile. Yet his xSLG and Barrel% rank in the 71st and 72nd percentile and his Sweet-Spot% is in the 91st percentile. McCormick doesn’t consistently hit the ball hard, he tends to chase pitches and strike out too much. But he will still work a walk and hit the ball in the gaps and over the fence to rack up solid SLG and OBP numbers.
And let’s look at that Barrel% and Sweet-Spot% a bit more. Here are his Barrel% numbers the last three seasons:
- 2021 – 10.2%
- 2022 – 10.2%
- 2023 – 11.1%
That is really consistent and is much better than the MLB average of 6.9%. And here are his Sweet-Spot numbers:
- 2021 – 35.8%
- 2022 – 33.5%
- 2023 – 38.4%
A little more variance in those numbers from year to year, but still pretty consistent and above the MLB average of 33.1%
Further Into The Numbers
One of the criticisms against McCormick is he is only a fastball hitter. It is very true that Chas McCormick crushes fastballs. From 2021 through last year, his averages against the fastball have been .279, .309 and .298. His slugging percentages have been .490, .586, .532.
But he isn’t a hack against other pitches.
Here are the averages against breaking pitches from 2021-2023: .216, .105, .245. His slugging percentages have been .373, .137, .441. As you can see, he struggled quite a bit against the breaking pitch his first two seasons but made the adjustment at the plate last year to be successful against the pitch.
And against offspeed pitches from ’21-’23, his averages were .278, .352, .238 and his slugging percentages were .472, .426, and .429. Those are not horrible numbers, though he did have his worst average against offspeed pitches last season. Despite that, he still produced a .429 slugging percentage.
In Summary
Chas McCormick turns 29 on April 19, so he is not a young player ready for a breakout season. He had that last year. But with more at-bats on the horizon this year, it is easy to see him reach 25 homers and 20 steals, especially playing half of his games in Minute Maid Park, where he slashed .285/.354/.534 last year with 12 homers, 38 RBI and 12 steals.
His career home run percentage of 4.2% beats the MLB average of 3.1%, and while the career strikeout rate of 27.6% is nearly five points higher than the MLB average of 22.8%, his walk percentage of 9.4 is above the MLB average of 8.5%.
Chas McCormick is not a splashy player. He is also not a young player. But he produces, and that is all I need out of players on my dynasty teams. My only adjustment when it comes to him is I have a three-year window of expectation for him and not five. Otherwise, if you can grab him, then do so.
