The beauty of this world is that there are levels to everything. Let’s take a laugh for instance. There’s the laugh after hearing <insert favorite comedian> tell a joke. There’s the nervous laugh like when Tommy asks Henry in Goodfellas, “I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you?” There’s the boss-said-a-terrible-joke-and-I-like-my-job laugh. There’s the laugh due to PEDs. There’s the laugh when you finally realize how messed up something is. There’s the better-you-than-me laugh. There’s the my-nose-is-a-volcano laugh after getting surprised. There’s the Barry-Bonds-is-this good? laugh. There’s the Brady-Anderson-hit-how-many-home-runs-in-1996? laugh. Then there’s the laugh when we realize that Miguel Andujar is balling out and being added by many in fantasy! I kid I kid. Let’s dig in.
Andujar is 29 years old, 6-foot, 211 pounds, and bats from the right side. He was signed by the New York Yankees as an international free agent in 2011. He spent seven years in the minors before making the big club in 2018, when he hit 27 home runs with 92 RBI in 606 plate appearances. He finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting behind Shohei Ohtani. But like Milli Vanilli, Andujar was a one-hit wonder as injuries derailed his career. He missed the 2019 season with shoulder surgery and was out for most of the 2021 season with a wrist injury.
The Pittsburgh Pirates claimed him off waivers in 2022, was designated for assignment, then claimed by the Oakland Athletic in November of 2023, but he tore his meniscus and missed the start of the season. In 34 plate appearances since being activated, Andujar has hit two home runs, stolen a base, and racked up 12 RBI. The slash is .394/.382/.636 with a .242 ISO, 0% walk rate and 5.9% strikeout rate.
He’s never been much of a walker with a career-average in the 6% range. He’s also never struck out much. The strikeout rate has been above 20% only once in his career, and that was back in 2019 with only 49 plate appearances. Andujar has shown the ability to post an ISO over .200.
First things first, Andujar is sporting a .367 BABIP, so there will be negative regression.
Looking at the Statcast numbers, things don’t look so hot. The average exit velocity is only 84.6 mph. His career-average is 87.8 mph. While the barrel rate of 9.4% is the second-highest of his career, the launch angle is -1.6 degrees. Yes, negative! The GB/FB rate is 3.6, way above the career-number of 1.3. He’s not pulling the ball, as the pull rate is only 31.3%. Instead, Andujar is going up the middle over half the time.
The sample size is low, so there could be some optimism here in that he will likely start hitting more flyballs. That said, the 40% HR/FB rate is unsustainable.
Looking at the plate discipline numbers, it’s good that he’s chasing fewer pitches outside the zone (34.7% vs 40+%). Unfortunately, there’s no way I’m buying the 0.8% swinging strike rate and 96% contact rate in the zone. His career numbers are 9.8% and 69.5% respectively.
Andujar is the one laughing right now, but I think we will all be laughing at him as he morphs into AnduJar Jar Binks.
