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David Fletcher, 2019
Stats: .290/.350/.384/.734, 6 HR, 49 RBI, 97 OPS+, 99 wRC+,
Baseball Reference WAR: 4.5
FanGraphs WAR: 3.4
Combined WAR: 3.95
Kicking off our countdown is a pretty recent season. Last year, actually. David Fletcher cracks the Top 100 after his first full season in the big leagues. He appeared in 80 games in 2018, and then nearly doubled it, appearing in 154 games in 2019.
Fletcher had quite the interesting 2019 campaign. Majority of his hits were singles, actually, 77 percent of his hits were singles. He finished the season with 133 of them, the third most in the American League. His other 40 hits consisted of 30 doubles, four triples and six home runs. Had most of his hits not consisted of singles, his OPS would have been a lot higher.
What really helped Fletcher sneak into this countdown was his amazing defense. He played all over last season, spending 90 games at third base, 42 games at second base, 39 games at shortstop and 23 games in the outfield. His total defensive WAR was 2.2, which was the third highest defensive WAR for any defender in the American League.
Fletcher is quickly establishing himself as one of the best defenders in the game. In 2018, though only for half a season, he had a higher defensive WAR (1.5) than offensive WAR (1.0).
In addition to coming up clutch defensively, Fletcher was a go-to option with the bat when needed. In high leverage situations, Fletcher hit .316 with an .810 OPS. More than half (26) of his RBI came during crucial moments of the game.
If Fletcher can develop a little more power at the plate, he will quickly establish himself as one of the best third basemen in the American League.