As I’ve stated before, baseball is hard. Some people take years to become good enough to be fantasy relevant. Yangervis Solarte has been kicking around the waiver wire for a few years now and has always been a worthy fill in when needed. Generally he’s been eligible at 2B, 3B, and OF. In the last few days we’ve heard some rumblings about Solarte being “aggressively shopped” by the San Diego Padres. This is curious as Solarte has 3 more years of team control left, and seemingly the Padres could use a 3B. Nonetheless this means Solarte should be headed to a better ballpark for home runs, at the very least. The Dodgers have been one of the teams in discussions for Solarte so this could be a pretty big bump in R/RBI as well, being a much better lineup.

2014 – 131 Games – 56 R – 10 HR – 48 RBI – .260 AVG

2015 – 152 Games – 63 R – 14 HR – 63 RBI – .270 AVG

2016 – 109 Games – 55 R – 15 HR – 71 RBI – .286 AVG

Those stats for the last three years are low enough to keep Solarte off most people’s radars. However the shortened season in 2016 hides the fact that he had a huge uptick in his stats. A brief look at Solarte’s batted ball profile shows that he increased his hard hit % and line drive % while maintaining a contact rate of 84.1%. This suggests that there is a legitimate attempt to power up his game. If we prorated his 2016 to, say, 155 games then we would see a line of 78 R – 21 HR – 101 RBI – .286 AVG. Those numbers aren’t half bad and would easily be worthy of a corner infield spot. If Solarte gets traded we could see an uptick in home runs and if he’s dealt to a good team, such as the Dodgers, we could see an uptick in the R/RBI as well. Next thing you know you’re looking at the next Justin Turner-like breakout.

Now as the title of this article points out, Solarte is 29 years old. So for you dynasty leaguers out there, don’t get the impression this is the a Ryon Healy-type breakout. There could be a few good years coming up on the Solarte baseball card and if you are competing now he would be someone to have on your team.