Health Will Be Key For These Three Players In 2022 Baseball Season

As opening day approaches and rosters are set, the war of attrition that is the MLB regular season is about to begin. Outside of the obvious players like Aaron Judge and Mike Trout, here are three less obvious players whose health will greatly impact their teams’ destiny in 2022.

Byron Buxton- Minnesota Twins CF

Byron Buxton is probably the most electrifying player in Major League Baseball when he’s on the field. Unfortunately, Byron Buxton has only played over 75% of a season just once and that was in 2017. Last season was the biggest tease of all when Buxton went off for a 169 wRC+ and 4.2 fWAR in just 61 games. If he kept up that pace for a full season, he may have approached 10 fWAR, which is insane.

With the addition of Carlos Correa, the Minnesota Twins arguably have two of the best players in Major League Baseball at the top of their batting order. Of Course Carlos Correa comes with his own injury concerns, but Buxton left so much to be desired in 2021, that he alone could help the Twins leapfrog the Chicago White Sox in 2022.

Brandon Belt- San Francisco Giants 1B

Now that the San Francisco Giants have a front office and coaching staff that values what Brandon Belt does, he has been flourishing in San Francisco. Brandon Belt has always been a solid player, but he seemed to reach another level over the past two seasons. Unfortunately, Belt only appeared in 97 games last season, but he was on pace to have a career year at age 32.

Entering his age 33 season, Belt still hasn’t appeared in a spring training game as he has been dealing with knee inflammation. He missed over a month with knee inflammation last season, so this is a situation to monitor as opening day draws near.

Belt missed the end of last season with a broken thumb and his absence in the Giants’ lineup was felt as their offense struggled in the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. If Brandon Belt can appear in 80% or more games this season and can produce the way he did in 2020 and 2021, it will be a huge shot in the arm for the scrappy San Francisco Giants as they look to repeat as NL West champions.

Adalberto Mondesi- Kansas City Royals SS

While the baseball world seems to have Bobby Witt Jr. hysteria, Adalberto Mondesi still exists. Unfortunately most of his time in the Major Leagues has been spend on the injured list. The COVID shortened 2020 season was the only season where Mondesi played a full season appearing in 59 of 60 games. However, that was the third most games Mondesi played in any season. Outside of that, Mondesi has appeared in more than 50% of Royals games just once in 2019 where he played 63% of games.

Although Mondesi has only played in a small sample of games over 6-ish seasons, there is enough data to suggest that he may not be the player people were hoping he would be. His high K rates and disinterest in walks make him heavily dependent on getting hits and slugging. However, Mondesi’s potential to hit in high volume, slug, run, and play middle infield is what makes him so appealing.

The Royals may be beyond the realms of playoff contention, but a healthy and productive Mondesi would really add depth to an underrated lineup. With Bobby Witt Jr. knocking down the door and Mondesi’s difficulty staying on the field, this is a great opportunity for Mondesi to restore some value and contribute to a potential surprise AL Central competitor.