Heading into his third year in the majors, the Nationals left-fielder is now a borderline first round pick in fantasy baseball drafts.

After a breakout rookie campaign in 2018, Juan Soto continued his success at the plate in 2019 knocking out 34 home runs and 110 RBIs. If it wasn’t for the shortened season in 2020, we would have projected career highs for the Nationals outfielder in home runs and batting average. But now that we know the MLB season will be significantly shorter than normal years, what do Sports Illustrated’s fantasy baseball analysts predict for him in 2020? Shawn Childs and Ben Heisler breakdown Soto’s Average Draft Position and discuss if he’s worthy of being a first round pick.

Read the transcript for more of their analysis: 

Bill Enright: After a breakout campaign in 2019, Juan Soto continued his success at the plate in 2019 by knocking out 34 home runs. But we're going to be the shortened season in 2020, so you might not get a chance to hit those career highs as you would have in a normal season. Let's bring on Sports Illustrated's fantasy baseball analyst Ben Heisler and Shawn Childs. Shawn, I'm going to go to you first. What do you give me a breakdown of what we can expect to see from Soto in 2020?

Shawn Childs: Well last year I really liked him. I thought he could be a hit .320 with 30 home runs, 100 RBIs and maybe chip in with a few steals. So he fell short a little bit in batting average. But you know, what he does impressively is his walk rate is 64 percent, which is top shelf at age 21. So the lineup takes a little hit with Rendon being out of it. But overall, he's in the right offense and he's moving forward. And I expect him to be a monster going forward.

Bill Enright: Ben, let me go over to you based on his latest ADP, his average draft position. Are you liking Juan Soto? As a member to start your fantasy baseball team around?

Ben Heisler: Yeah, I like soda quite a bit. His ADP right now is around twelve, so just that that tail end of the first round, maybe he sneaks into the early part of the second round for you. But as Shawn said, this is a guy with maybe 40 home run potential. Yeah, the RBI totals may go down because Anthony Rendon is no longer there. But there's so much explosiveness in that Washington lineup. The ball flies out of that ballpark, I believe, according to ESPN ballpark factors, it was the number two home run hit ballpark in all of 2019. So as long as those totals continue to go up, his walk rate is incredible. And I think right now that's a very solid price for Juan Soto at that average draft position of twelve.