When he is at his best, Daylen Lile is truly a joy to watch at the plate. He is a throwback, a pure hitter with excellent bat to ball skills. Those skills make him such an intriguing young player despite some growing pains, especially in the field.
While Daylen Lile still has negative WAR for the season, he is showing some traits that make me very excited for his future. The biggest one is his pure hitting ability. In an era where so many players are trying to be scientists out there, Lile is an artist
at the plate. He is not afraid to take something off of his swing to poke a ball the other way, but when he gets a pitch to hit he can get his hands in to pull the ball. Lile looks a bit like Daniel Murphy in that respect.
Lile has such a pretty left handed swing that allows him to make a ton of contact. On pitches in the zone, Lile has a 92.1% contact rate, which is borderline elite. His overall whiff rate is just 17.3% which is fantastic. Daylen Lile has a plus hit tool, and that is what he builds his game around.
Despite his average only being .259, his expected average is much higher at .297. We have seen him realize some of that lately. Since the All-Star break, Lile has a .287 average with a .781 OPS. When he came up, Lile was getting a bit unlucky at the plate, now things are balancing out.
While the pure hitting ability is not a question, there are some things Lile needs to do to establish himself as a valuable big leaguer. Chief among them is improving his defense. The eye test and the statcast data both tell you that Lile is a bad defender. His reads aren’t very good, his arm is weak and he has a tough time playing balls in the corner.
However, Lile has the athleticism to improve. Last year we saw similarly rough defense from James Wood and now he is a decent defender out in left field. Lile has an 89th percentile sprint speed. Athletes like that should be able to become at least serviceable defenders with the right coaching.
Right now, Lile also is not walking a ton or hitting for much power. However, I think there could be improvements coming in both of those areas. While Lile’s walk rate is under 5%, he only chases 25.4% of the time, which is actually a bit better than average. That tells me more walks could come down the road.
I also think he can tap into more home run power in the years to come. His exit velocities are not amazing, but they are decent. However, he does pull the ball in the air at a high clip which could help him outslug his exit velocities. Power will never be a massive strength for him, but 18 homers with a ton of doubles and triples is not out of the question.
Those triples have always been a big part of Lile’s game. In the minors, he had 25 career triples which is very high. Lile already has four triples in the big leagues as well. With his speed, gap to gap hitting and base running ability, Lile can sniff out triples with the best of them.
I really like Lile despite some obvious holes in his game. There are not many guys with the skills to be a .300 hitter in the modern MLB. Daylen Lile has that kind of upside. He also has decent power to go with it as well. I am really high on the 22 year olds upside.
In a world where so many fans complain about strikeouts and hitters being home run or bust, Daylen Lile is a guy they should watch. He puts together so many competitive at bats and has a feel for the barrel that is rare in today’s game. Daylen Lile is just a natural at the plate.
