Why you should NOT draft Francisco Lindor this season
Francisco Lindor finished second in NL MVP voting last season on the New York Mets, where he may have had the best season of his career. Because of this, he is going at around the 12th player off the board in fantasy drafts so far, which we think is just way too high for him. Also, he's had a very disappointing Cactus League, which we will get into later.
Last season with the Mets, Lindor batted .273/.344/.500 for a .834 OPS and a 138 OPS +, which was a career high for him. He also stole 29 bases on the season. Overall, Lindor took a huge step up in his fourth season as a Met, whereas the other seasons weren't as good as some people expected out of him. He led that Mets team to the NLCS, before losing to the eventual champion Dodgers.
After all those insane stats that we just showed Lindor having last season, then why would we say to not draft him this year? Well, obviously you should draft him if he falls to you at pick 25. But, one reason is that he is just kind of overrated in this sense because of his last season. His ECR (Expert Consensus Ranking) is only at 20th overall, and we predict he'll finish lower than that this season. For a player going around 12th in most leagues, a ECR at 20th doesn't do you any favors whatsoever.
Another reason that you shouldn't draft Lindor this year is because of his Cactus League struggles. Among all qualified hitters, Francisco Lindor has the lowest batting average in spring training, at just .193. Overall, Lindor has just been bad in spring ball, with just a .515 OPS and 14 total bases, while striking out ten times as well.
In conclusion, you shouldn't draft Fransisco Lindor this season in the top twenty picks because he is slightly overrated, and because of his spring training struggles. We suggest drafting Lindor around picks 22-23, if he falls, but let someone else take the bullet when he doesn't play up to his ADP this season. Lindor is still a good player, we just don't think he's as good as his draft stock says he is.