Toronto Blue Jays Addison Barger has been showing that he should not been sent back down
Photo credit: MLB.com
While it's been a pretty slow start for many Toronto Blue Jays players so far this season, Addison Barger has turned things around lately.
Barger was called up by the Blue Jays in mid-April, going 1 for 17 in his first seven games with the team, and had a terrible .139 batting average after just 14 games.
Blue Jays infielder Addison Barger appears to be flipping the switch.
Edward Eng from the Jays Journal writes that as a result, Barger was one of the early scapegoats for the Blue Jays' struggles. But following a strong road trip through Los Angeles and Seattle, he appears to have found his stride. Barger went 8 for 18 during the trip, boosting his batting average by over 100 points.
"Along with recording eight hits during that six-game trip, Barger also had three doubles, a home run and six RBI to go with two walks. That homer was his first of the season." -Eng
Although he doesn't yet have enough plate appearances to qualify for Baseball Savant's leaderboards, his underlying metrics are elite. His average exit velocity (94.1 mph), bat speed (76.2 mph), and chase rate (20.5%) would all rank among the top percentile in MLB.
"Barger showed his potential when he finished last year with a .211 average in his final 64 games of the season after a disastrous first stint with Toronto, and he followed that up by hitting .367 in 15 games in spring training." -Eng
Barger was likely to remain on the roster regardless due to his excellent defense and ability to play multiple positions, but his recent surge at the plate gives him an even stronger case to stay.
The Blue Jays are in no position to keep a hot bat out of their lineup, so the wise move at the moment would be to keep Barger in.
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