Sneaky Stat Shows Marlins Slugger’s Intriguing Comparison to All-Stars, MVPs
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For now, Miami Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers is working his way back from what the team called a “very minor” right hamstring strain earlier in spring training.
Miami doesn’t want to rush him back. He’s already gone through a running progression and faced live pitching. He’s expected to be back in the lineup for a spring training game on Saturday and if he keeps working on this trajectory, he should still be ready for opening day when the Marlins host the Colorado Rockies on March 27.
Miami needs his bat, not just on opening day but for the entire season. He established himself as one of the Marlins’ best hitters and one of the rising sluggers in the game in 2025, even though he missed the final weeks with an injury.
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The proof is in one key number that puts him in some of the best company in baseball.
Kyle Stowers’ Intriguing Star Comp
Fantasy baseball has little to do with real baseball, but it didn’t stop ESPN’s Jeff Passan from including fantasy baseball advice in his 2026 season preview. He recommended readers give Stowers a hard look as a fantasy baseball value pick in the outfield based on one statistic — weighted on-base average.
“Before Kyle Stowers suffered a season-ending oblique injury in mid-August, he had the seventh-highest weighted on-base average in MLB. Not among outfielders. Not in the NL. In all of baseball,” Passan wrote.
That weighted on-base average, or wOBA, was .386. That’s impressive, but it’s the company that he was keeping that was even more impressive.
The six hitters ahead of him in wOBA for 2025? Well, it was some of the best hitters in baseball, including New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Los Angeles Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani, Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte, Philadelphia Phillies DH Kyle Schwarber, Dodgers catcher Will Smith and Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
That’s an incredible list of hitters for the 28-year-old slugger to be keeping up with. He emerged as one of the best hitters on the team last season as he claimed his first National League All Star game berth. He slashed .288/.368/.544 with 25 home runs and 73 RBI. During the season he became the first Marlin in nearly a decade to be named the National League Player of the Month.
In July, he slashed .364/.451/.818 with 16 runs, five doubles, 10 home runs, and 20 RBI.
He’s found a home in Miami after he was up-and-down with the Baltimore Orioles since he made his Major League debut in 2022. One of the top outfield prospects in the system, he could never get a foothold on the Major League roster due to the players in front of him. At the 2024 trade deadline, the Orioles traded him and second baseman Connor Norby for left-handed starting pitcher Trevor Rogers.
