2017 FANTASY BASEBALL PLAYER ANALYZER: J.T. REALMUTO C MIAMI MARLINS

Another guy we hit a home run on for 2016 fantasy baseball was Miami Marlins ascending catcher J.T. Realmuto.  In fact Realmuto was the catcher we told you all to draft in terms of once again preaching our strategy of picking an upside backstop in the later round.  Realmuto was every bit available in the final rounds of almost all drafts prior to last season and in some cases, he went unclaimed altogether.  Instead we saw the potential here due to the fact that Realmuto hinted at very good contact skills for a catcher to go along with possessing speed not seen here since Jason Kendall.  Realmuto wound up doing a nice Kendall impression as he hit .303 with 11 home runs and 12 stolen bases last season in a tremendous value campaign.  Easily leading all catchers in steals, Realmuto was a rock of consistency with the bat all year as he struck out in just 18.3 percent of his at-bats (justifying our good contact assessment).  Turning only 26 in March, Realmuto should absolutely be able to reprise those numbers, with perhaps just a dip in his average after posting a lucky .357 BABIP.  Kid is perfectly legit and draft accordingly.

2017 PROJECTION:  .289 12 HR 50 RBI 62 R 11 SB