Diamondbacks 2023 Player Reviews: Dominic Fletcher
This article is part of a series of player reviews for the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a surprising and marvelous year for the team as they won 84 games to make the postseason. They advanced to Game Five of the World Series before bowing out to the Texas Rangers. There are 54 players in all that had at least one at-bat or pitched at least one inning for the team this past season. They are being presented in reverse order of their aWAR (average WAR-Wins Above Replacement) produced, which is the average of Baseball Reference and Fangraphs WAR. These are their season stories.
Dominic Fletcher MLB 2023 Season Stats
Dominic Fletcher was taken by the Diamondbacks in the second round of the 2019 draft out of the University of Arkansas. His older brother David is a six year major league veteran with the Los Angeles Angels. The left-handed Dominic has been a solid performer throughout his minor league career, hitting for average with moderate power while playing good defense in both center and right field. Thanks to a strong throwing arm he profiles best in right field.
Fletcher reached Triple-A Reno in 2022 and was hitting .323/.417/.559 through his first 22 games in 2023 when his first opportunity in the majors came about. Corbin Carroll crashed into the wall in Colorado on April 29th, bruising his knee. Fletcher was called up to fill in for Carroll and got into his first game on April 30th. He ripped a gap splitting double into left center for a hit in his very first at bat.
That kicked off an incredible 12 game hot streak to start his major league career. Through his first 12 games Fletcher had six multi hit games, going 18 for 39, .462. The zenith of the streak was three games against the Giants at Chase Field in which he went eight for 12, homering twice and driving in 11 runs. Performances like that will certainly make an impression and also made Fletcher and immediate fan favorite.
Fletcher cooled off noticeably from there however. Over his next 10 games he went six for 39, .154, with just two doubles while striking out 11 times. At that point he was optioned back down to Reno while Jake McCarthy was called up. Fletcher continued to hit for average back in Triple-A but not for much power. Once again he was called back up due to a Carroll injury on June 30th. That was a personal highlight for the young outfielder as it came during a trip to Anaheim where he got a chance to play against his brother David. It was an emotional reunion, as their father had just passed away on June 12th. Seeing the two brothers interview in the dugout together prior to the first game of that series remains one of the best moments of the 2023 season.
Fletcher went 4-15 during this second call up without an extra base hit. Once it was clear that Carroll's shoulder was not going to be an issue, Fletcher was optioned out once again. Over his final 31 games in Reno he hit .252/.380/.504 in 158 plate appearances. He hit seven homers and drew 24 walks, more than making up for the drop in batting average. His season ended on August 23rd when he suffered a fractured left index finger
While his overall batting line and ability to fill in during Carroll's various infirmities was a boon to the team at critical moments, several flaws in Fletcher's game were also exposed. After his incredible hot start, once teams got a look at him they will able to pitch to him and get him to chase and hit the ball on the ground a lot. He ended up with just a 15% line drive rate and a 51% ground ball percentage. League average is 20% and 42% respectively. Due to the poor quality of contact he had extremely large gaps between his actual numbers and his expected statistics based on stat cast data on Baseball Savant. See table below.
Jack Sommers
The other issue for Fletcher was poor hitting against left hand pitchers, whom he went just 4-28, .143 against. This has been a consistent issue in the minor leagues as well. He hit just .244 with one homer against left hand pitching in Reno in 2023, and the year prior had a .681 OPS against lefties compared to a .939 OPS against righties.
2024 Outlook
Fletcher should be completely recovered from his finger injury and ready for spring training. He will hope to follow up his early 2023 success having made adjustments. He is currently behind Jake McCarthy on the depth chart for the 4th outfielder position and is also being pushed by Jorge Barrosa. Now 26 years old, Fletcher profiles as a 4th outfielder going forward. His Steamer projection at Fangraphs is a rather modest .247/.308/.380, .688 OPS, but he certainly has the potential to exceed those numbers as he showed in May.
