This week’s risers and fallers is again a six pack of topics to talk about. Lane Thomas has rebounded from a poor start to the season and a Grade 2 MCL sprain, Jackson Merrill has been the best “Rookie Jackson” in the league and Hunter Brown added a new pitch and completely turned his season around, for the risers. As for the fallers, Gleyber Torres’ poor production has resulted in spending some time on the bench, Carlos Rodon has a complete meltdown and the fall of the Texas Rangers offense.

RISERS

Lane Thomas has rebounded, quite well, from a poor start to the season and a Grade 2 MCL sprain, showing off the power/speed combo from his breakout 2023 season. Before he suffered the injury, on April 23rd, Thomas was batting a putrid 0.184, with a 0.250 OBP and 0.253 SLG, with only two home runs and eleven stolen bases in 96 plate appearances. He had a 4.4% barrel rate, 36.8% hard-hit rate and an 88.2 MPH average exit velocity. In the month since his return from his injury, he’s been one of the best hitters in all of baseball. In 115 plate appearances since May 27th, Thomas has a 0.287 average, 0.341 OBP, 0.565 SLG and a wRC+ of 148, which means he’s been 48% better than the average batter over that time frame. He has six home runs and six stolen bases in that time frame (a 35/35 pace over a full season). His average exit velocity is up three miles per hour, his barrel rate up seven percent, his hard-hit rate up 13.2%. He also has a 23.9% line-drive rate (elite), 36.4% ground ball rate (again, elite) and tied for fifth in runs (24) and fourth in RBI (24) in that  time frame as well. Any buy low window that might have been open after the poor start and during the missed time has now been slammed shut.

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