Three Up, Three Down: Mitch Haniger Mashing For Mariners

Each week, Kyle Glaser will take a look at the trends in major league baseball

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Mitch Haniger | OF | Mariners. The Mariners acquired 19 players in a dizzying 15 trades this offseason, and none have been more impactful than Haniger. The 26-year-old rookie right fielder, acquired from the Diamondbacks in the Jean Segura deal, is hitting .321/.430/.590 through 20 games with seven doubles, four home runs and 16 RBI. He led the minors with a .999 OPS last year and now leads major league rookies (min. 50 AB) with a 1.020 OPS, ahead of more heralded hitters like Aaron Judge and Andrew Benintendi.

Eric Thames | 1B | Brewers. Baseball’s best story shows no signs of slowing down. Thames, who played the past three seasons in Korea, hit two more homers for the Brewers on Monday to give him a major league-leading 10 longballs. Thames specifically struggled against sliders in his first shot at the majors in 2011-12, hitting .188 with a 19.5 percent whiff rate against them. He went to Korea, where velocity is rare and pitchers rely on spin and deception for success, and has come back able to hit the pitch that used to give him such trouble. Thames is hitting .500 on sliders so far this season, with a whiff rate down to 16.1 percent.

Rockies Prospect Pitchers: Righthander Antonio Senzatela and lefthander Kyle Freeland won rotation jobs in spring training and have played big roles helping the Rockies (14-6) get off to the best start in baseball. Senzatela is 3-0, 2.08 in through his first four starts and Freeland is 2-1, 3.32. Senzatela is particular has been exceptional, recording 17 strikeouts against just four walks in 26 innings and limiting opponents to a .202 average.

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Jurickson Profar | IF/OF | Rangers. The former Rangers top prospect continues to show little ability to make any sort of impactful contact. Profar, 24, is hitting .135 (5-for-37) without an extra base hit this year. In 694 career plate appearances, Profar has hit .229/.309/.328, even with respectable strikeout (19.5 percent) and walk (9.2 percent) rates.

Dansby Swanson | SS | Braves. It’s been an inauspicious start for the Braves rookie shortstop. Swanson entered Tuesday hitting .139/.162/.194 through 18 games. Most concerning is he has 19 strikeouts and just two walks. Pitchers are coming after Swanson with the hard stuff and he is largely struggling. He has faced 99 fastballs and has just one hit off of them and has zero hits against 77 sliders, according to Brooks Baseball.

Reds Prospect Pitchers: The Reds’ premier young arms continue to struggle. Robert Stephenson (5.59 ERA) and Cody Reed (6.30) are getting shelled as they did in their debuts last season and have been sent to the bullpen. Amir Garrett (5.09 ERA) got roughed up for eight hits and 10 runs in 3.1 innings on Monday, and Rookie Davis (6.43 ERA) gave up seven hits and six walks in seven innings before being placed on the disabled list with a bruised forearm. At least Ariel Hernandez struck out five in 2.2 hitless innings of relief in his debut on Monday.