Can Andres Gimenez Recreate Breakout Season With The Guardians?
One of the biggest surprises during the 2022 regular season was the breakout year that Andres Gimenez had. One question remains though, can he replicate this performance in 2023?
Gimenez spent much of the 2021 season in Triple-A Columbus. Even when he was with the Major League team, he didn't do too much to impress on the offensive side. His batting average was just .218 with a .633 OPS.
However, he was a completely different hitter in 2022 and slashed .297/.371/.466 with a .837 OPS. He also hit 17 home runs and had 69 RBI.
There's good reason to believe that Gimenez can pick up right where he left off in 2023. This has to do with his batting stance.
Gimenez played around a lot with his batting stance during the first two seasons of his career. Plus, getting traded after his rookie season didn't help with making sure he was consistent in the box.
But after the 2021 offseason, he came to Spring Training with the same stance and swing he left with, eliminated his high leg kick, and the rest is history.
Early projections don't totally seem to be on board with this continued success though.
FanGraphs is predicting Gimenez to hit three more home runs (20) next season but drop in other categories. This includes his average going from .297 to .267, his OBP going from .371 to .331, and his wOBA going from .364 to .333.
Baseball Reference on the other hand is a little more hopeful. They project some of Gimenez's stats to fall but not nearly as dramatically as FanGraphs. Baseball Reference projects him to slash .276/347/.431 while still maintaining a strong OPS of .778.
It's important to remember that these are just projections, but they do give us a glimpse of how others are viewing the upcoming season for Gimenez. He could exceed them or even fall short. Now we'll just have to wait what feels like forever to see if these models have it right or wrong.
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