22 players we really want to see stay healthy for the 2022 MLB season
True story: I couldn’t sleep on Wednesday night — Opening Day excitement, I guess — so I went down to my desk to work on a story. Might as well be productive, right?
I had already started my piece on the 22 players I wanted to see stay healthy in 2022, and some of these capsules had already been written. When I was at Busch Stadium earlier that day, I’d had a nice chat with Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. He was on my list after he’d missed a few months of the 2021 season with a wrist injury suffered in the second game.
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Annoyingly awake, I reworked the top portion of the story so it was all about Hayes. Here’s what he told me about the injury: “It was a bummer. I had the home run the first at-bat. I was feeling great leaving spring training and then that happened, unfortunately.”
And here’s what he said about his hopes for 2022: “My main goal is to be available for 162 games this year. That’s my No. 1 goal. Obviously, we want to win games and stuff like that, but we know it could take some time. We’re very young. But we’re ready for the challenge.”
And you already know what happened on Thursday. Well, first this happened. And then this happened. Sheesh. Hayes is officially day-to-day, so that’s good. Fingers crossed for a quick return.
So this is the re-reworked intro. Injuries robbed us all of the chance to watch a lot of very talented players put together complete seasons in 2021. So think of this as a wish list. If I had the power to grant a season of health to 22 players — because, y’know, it’s the 2022 season — these are the guys I’d choose. In coming up with this list, I set a few ground rules.
First, I’m only looking at players who missed significant time — measured in months, not days or weeks — in 2021. Obviously, folks, I want Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto to stay healthy. But here, we’re only looking at position players who appeared in 110 games or fewer, starting pitchers who made 16 or fewer starts and relievers who appeared 25 or fewer times. Arbitrary? Sure, yeah. But gotta set the parameters somewhere, right?
Oh, and we’re only looking at players who are healthy (or very close) right now, so that’s why Jacob deGrom isn’t here, even though he would have been very high on this list a few weeks ago. Same goes for Jack Flaherty, Kyle Lewis, Danny Duffy and others who won’t make their 2022 debuts anytime soon.
1. Byron Buxton, Twins
Buxton’s No. 1 on this list, and it’s not particularly close. The insanely talented Buxton made his debut in June 2015 and has only played more than 87 games once. And while he often struggled to harness that talent early in his career, flashing his skills for brief stretches, that’s a thing of the past. When he’s been healthy, he’s been amazing.
In 61 games last season — interrupted by two separate long IL stints — he hit 19 homers, with nine stolen bases, a 171 OPS+ and a 4.5 bWAR for the Twins. That bWAR number is just jaw-dropping for only 61 games. Aaron Judge hit 39 homers and finished fourth in the AL MVP voting, and his bWAR was just a little bit higher, at 6.0. It doesn’t take a lot of math to figure out that Buxton could have easily posted a season up around 10 WAR with even 140 games, and those seasons don’t come around often.
We need to see what a healthy Buxton is capable of over a full season. Need, not want.
2. Mike Trout, Angels
Why is he not No. 1? At least we’ve seen the type of season he’s capable of producing. Heck, he won the 2019 AL MVP — his third award — after playing only 134 games. But he’s missed at least 22 games every year since 2016 — sorry, the pandemic season doesn’t count — and played a career-low 36 games last year. But here’s the thing: In those first 36 games, he was incredible. He’s rarely been better. In those 36 games, Trout hit .333 with a .466 on-base percentage and 1.090 OPS, with eight home runs and a 1.8 bWAR.
I hate to say this, but 2022 is his Age 30 season, and it’s fair to wonder how many truly great, Trout-like seasons he has left in the tank. I guess what I’m saying is I’d rather see 150 games from Trout in 2022 than 150 games from Trout in 2026 (though I definitely want to see that, too).
3. Luis Robert, White Sox
Truth is, Robert is the only other player I considered at No. 1. I spent a couple of days around White Sox spring camp a few weeks ago — including the game where he hit two opposite-field home runs — and everyone connected to the team just raves about how good Robert could be in 2022, if he’s healthy. He’s on the short list of players who could actually, legitimately compete with Shohei Ohtani for the AL MVP if Ohtani’s healthy. In 68 games last year — he missed more than three months with a torn hip flexor before returning in August — Robert produced a .338 batting average, to go with 13 home runs, a .946 OPS and 3.6 bWAR.
4. Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves
Acuña was pretty amazing his first couple of seasons in the bigs, but he really seemed to be taking a giant step forward in 2021. Not only did he have 24 homers, 17 stolen bases, a .990 OPS and 3.6 bWAR in 82 games before that awful ACL injury in the outfield, but he’d cut down on his strikeout rate — 23.6, after 26.4 his first three years — and his exit velocity was a career high, evidence that he was taking better swings at better pitches and making better contact. Want to know why a lot of people think the Braves could actually be better in 2022? It starts with the hope for a full-ish season from this guy.
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5. Noah Syndergaard, Angels
It’s not just that we want to see what Syndergaard can do coming off Tommy John surgery, it’s that we want to see whether he can be one of the starters who finally help the Angels fix their pitching problems and get the team into playoff contention.
6. Shane Bieber, Guardians
Bieber made 12 starts during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, then 16 in his shoulder-injury-shortened 2021 season. In those 28 starts over the two years, he had a 2.48 ERA/2.60 FIP with 13.2 K/9 and 6.7 H/9.
So, yeah, we’d like to see that all in one year, please.
7. Luis Severino, Yankees
Pretty much anything that could go wrong has gone wrong for Severino the past couple of years, which is especially frustrating after he finished third in the AL Cy Young race in 2017 and ninth in 2018. He wasn’t especially effective this spring, but he was on the mound for 7 2/3 innings and that’s the most important thing. With a healthy Severino, the Yankees can compete for the AL East title. Without him, that’s very doubtful.
8. Eloy Jimenez, White Sox
How easily we forget that the White Sox won 95 games last year despite Robert and Jimenez both spending several months on the IL. Jimenez hit 31 homers as a rookie in 2019, hit 14 homers with an .896 OPS during the pandemic season — at just 23 years old — but suffered a ruptured (what an evil word) pectoral tendon in spring training and didn’t make his debut until late July. He had moments, but never seemed to quite find his rhythm at the plate, not at the level he had his first two years in the majors.
9. George Springer, Blue Jays
Springer hit 22 homers with a 143 OPS+ and 2.4 bWAR in 78 games with the Blue Jays last year. What can he do in a full season batting at the top of a lineup right in front of Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Teoscar Hernandez and the rest of the Jays’ mashers?
10. Justin Verlander, Astros
We know what he’s capable of in a full season. We just want to see it again.
11. Jesse Winker, Reds
Winker has a career .388 on-base percentage and 128 OPS+, but here are his non-pandemic game totals starting in 2018: 89, 113, 110. The 2021 season finally looked like his healthy breakthrough; he made the All-Star Game for the Reds and had 24 homers with a .305/.394/.556 slash line in mid-August. And then he played only one game after Aug. 15, sidelined with a strained intercostal muscle.
Now he’s in Seattle, and even though Reds fans would love to see Winker finally play a full season for the Mariners — everyone in Cincy loves Winker — they would feel a bit jealous if it finally happens for the first time in his new town.
12. Mike Clevinger, Padres
He’s fun to watch on the mound. And, yeah, the Padres really need him to make 30 starts and help erase the taste from last year’s collapse.
13. Adalberto Mondesi, Royals
Please give us a full season of Mondesi on the left side of the K.C. infield next to Bobby Witt Jr.. Pretty please.
14. Christian Yelich, Brewers
Yelich hasn’t been himself the past two seasons. Even when he’s been on the field, he often hasn’t been 100 percent. We need a 100 percent season to see whether he has any of that magic left in the tank, whether he can still be that dynamic MVP candidate he was in 2018-19 for Milwaukee.
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15. Corey Seager, Dodgers
In his rookie season, Seager won the NL Rookie of the Year award and finished third in the MVP voting, posting a 5.2 bWAR in 157 games. His full-season game totals since then: 145, 26, 134, 95. The Rangers were undaunted, handing him a massive contract in the offseason, and it would just be great if he’d stay healthy in 2022 and show the club that its money was well-spent. Because, yeah, he could post great numbers and greatly impact a franchise that’s been down the past few seasons.
16. Nick Madrigal, White Sox
I wrote about him a few days ago. I’ll just give you the link and avoid writing about him now so maybe I won’t get that Family Madrigal song from Encanto stuck in my head again.
…
(too late, dammit.)
17. Anthony Rendon, Angels
I I’m being honest, the reason I want to see Rendon stay healthy and productive in 2022 is only partially about Rendon himself. The other part is about Shohei Ohtani, and something manager Joe Maddon told me this spring: “He’s going to get better on offense because the names are Trout, Rendon, (Jared) Walsh, etcetera, etcetera. Last year he was naked (in the lineup) a lot of the season.”
Yep, if Trout and Rendon play 150-ish games, that’s big for Ohtani. Because there’s a big damn difference between a healthy Trout or a healthy Rendon batting directly behind Ohtani in the order than if it’s David Fletcher or Phil Gosselin, as was the case for the last two-plus months of 2021. So, yeah. Stay healthy, Anthony.
18. Brandon Belt, Giants
We’ve seen full seasons from Belt (five with at least 137 games), but we haven’t seen a full season from the slugging version of Belt who emerged in 2021. He played in only 97 games but hit 29 homers — 11 more than his previous career high! It would be fun to see him carry that power through a full season, wouldn’t it?
19. Jordan Hicks, Cardinals
Hicks burst onto the scene in 2018-19 with his triple-digit fastball and ability to make hitters just look silly with a sinking fastball that dove in ways that didn’t seem possible. But multiple factors — primarily Tommy John surgery — limited him to just 10 innings over the past two seasons. He’s healthy heading into 2022, and to the surprise of most everyone, we learned on Wednesday that he’ll be the Cardinals’ fifth starter this year. It’s a role he’s long wanted, but getting his shot at this point in his career was a bit of a shock.
Still, yeah, it’ll be fascinating to see what he can do. His teammate Dakota Hudson deserves a mention here, too. As does Miles Mikolas. Basically, most of the Cardinals rotation.
20. Alex Kirilloff, Twins
Does any team have more “if only” questions than the Twins? If only Buxton stays healthy. If only the starters they acquired pitch like they’re capable. If only Miguel Sano adds consistent contact to his prodigious power. The “if only” for Kirilloff is all about health, and he’s just a notch below Buxton on the Twins’ “if only” list. He was the No. 9 overall prospect in baseball (by MLB.com) entering the 2019 season,
He’s had wrist issues, though, including surgery that ended his season last July, with just 59 games played. He was healthy this spring, and if he can stay healthy and tap into that potential, that would be a huge boost for the Twins.
21. Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks
A healthy Marte is a reason for D-backs fans to head to the ballpark. It would be great if he plays 150-ish games after signing that extension. He’s a fun player to watch.
22. Alex Bregman, Astros
After three consecutive seasons with at least 155 games, Bregman missed 30 percent of the 2020 schedule and 44 percent of the 2021 slate. It’s especially disappointing considering he’d finished fifth in the AL MVP voting in 2018 and second in 2019. Injuries have robbed him of the chance to take that next step in his career.