Ryon Healy, third baseman, Oakland Athletics
The 2016 season didn’t offer many positives for the A’s, but the play of Ryon Healy was dynamite. In only 269 at-bats, Healy hit 13 home runs and slashed at .305/.337/.524. This was after splitting 337 at-bats between AA and AAA, slashing at .326/.382/.558, and 14 home runs. By some measures, in fact, his 2016 season was an historically good rookie campaign.
#Athletics 3B Ryon Healy hit 8th-longest HR of 2016 (472 ft) and ranks 8th by @baseball_ref OPS+ by first-year batters since 1994 strike. pic.twitter.com/WZTWUvw02p
— Matt Eddy (@MattEddyBA) January 30, 2017
With a full year’s worth of at-bats, Healy’s numbers only figure to get better.
Why the optimism?
As is the case with most of these MLB players expected to explode, Healy is now acclimated to the Major League level. He’s not likely to be overwhelmed by anything he sees. That would have happened in 2016.
Additionally, Healy won’t be splitting at-bats with anyone. Danny Valencia and Billy Butler are both gone. That opens up a window for Healy to be a full time player.
Lastly, with the addition of Trevor Plouffe, Healy is expected to play predominantly at first base and designated hitter. Those are far less strenuous defensive positions than third base, which is where Healy played a season ago. Now, he can focus even more on improving as a hitter.
Healy wasn’t especially touted heading into 2016, even within the Athletics organization. But sometimes scouts are wrong. We’re expecting to see big things from Healy in 2017, continuing to show how much of a mistake overlooking him was.