Blue Jays PoW: Michael Saunders

What can you say about Michael Saunders? The guy has been phenomenal so far this year after coming off of a broken 2015 season, and spring training rumours that nearly saw him leave the ball club. He’s been consistently getting on base, hitting the ball with authority, and he’s earned his second player of the week honours, the first player to get more than one so far in this short season.

His wRC+ of 166 ranks tied for 13th in all of baseball, with arguably the best hitter in the game in Bryce Harper. Clearly, you’d be a fool to say that Saunders and Harper are going to end up with similar wRC+ totals at season’s end, but it’s absolutely a testament to how he’s been performing at the plate.

In 23 at-bats last week, Saunders notched six base hits, three of which were home runs, while also drawing three walks. He raised his already strong .899 OPS to a very good .942 and continued to be one of the few bright spots on an offensive unit that is struggling to gain any traction early on this year.

His plate discipline has been fantastic so far, and he’s been able to put himself into great hitters counts. His 20.8% O-Swing is very good, well under his career mark of 25.9%, and he’s been able to hit with authority once he finds himself in favourable hitters counts.

The spray chart shown below from Fangraphs shows how he’s been able to use the whole field exceptionally well, and it’s especially encouraging seeing him drive the ball with power to centre field.

Another positive sign has been his ability to hammer left-handed pitching to a tune of: .273/.333/.773/.1.106 and a 200 wRC+. His career so far has shown a tendency to hit RHP quite a bit better than LHP, so watching that trend reverse itself early on has been a very good indicator of where he’s at as a hitter right now.

He hasn’t been overwhelming defensively, but he hasn’t been a liability at all, which was a potential case depending on how his mobility fared after last year’s knee surgery. His DRS currently sits at -1 and his UZR is at 0.1.

Saunders has been a blessing for the Jays this year, and without his performance early on this season, the offence would be even further into a slump than they already are. He’s been a consistent source of production and on-base ability, while supplying solid defence in left.

He’s not going to be the team’s MVP at the end of the year, but it’s unheralded play like this that makes good teams great, and his success in this past week, a week in which that was borderline unbearable for Jays fans, has led him to his second PoW early this season.