Mariners: Evan White fantasy baseball advice

The Mariners are almost two weeks into Spring Training and Opening Day is creeping around the corner. That means fantasy baseball is also nearing. So, we are here to provide you Evan White fantasy baseball advice.

Evan White fantasy baseball advice

Where is Evan White ranked?

The 2020 Gold Glove winner is ranked 341st in Fantasy Pros this year, which isn’t too bad considering how he played last year. He could have easily been ranked 400+ in my opinion.

The University of Kentucky product is surrounded by Mauricio Dubon (335th), Alejandro Kirk (340th), Stefan Crichton (324nd), and Robbie Ray (344th).

Among first basemen, Evan White is the 48th ranked player. Again, he is surrounded by lackluster names on the list. White is surrounded by Nate Lowe (43rd), Renato Nunez (45th), Wilmer Flores (49th), and Garrett Cooper (50th).

Should I draft Evan White?

He’s not my favorite Mariners player in fantasy baseball this year… Especially when looking at first basemen, there are lots of great offensive weapons on the board so Evan isn’t super appealing.

Evan White posted a .216/.297/.392 slash line in his rookie season, which doesn’t warrant a spot on my fantasy roster. BUT, if you are a Mariners fan, you are well aware of Evan White’s advanced metrics from 2020.

The 24-year-old had an impressive 14.1% barrel percentage which was in the top 10% of the league and a 52.5% hard-hit percentage which was in the top 5% of the MLB last year. Pretty impressive stuff considering how bad his baseline numbers were.

So, if you believe in miracles and sophomore rebounds, Evan White is worth a pick. But even then, I am a little skeptical and will treat him as a low-risk high-reward type of player. I am talking like the last two to four picks of the entire fantasy draft.

When should you draft Evan White?

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If you feel pretty confident in Evan White, feel free to take him as your backup first baseman in the middle-late rounds. But I would recommend waiting on Evan White until the very end so you can compile a good starting lineup first.

Another reason why I recommend waiting is because of his Spring Training numbers. Evan has been one of the coldest batters in Arizona and is worrying me. In 16 at-bats, he has a .063 batting average and .150 OBP. He has recorded just one hit this Spring which was a double. He has struck out four times and walked twice.

The one positive thing I notice is his strikeouts. Evan struck out way too often last year so it is good to see him cutting down a bit during the first two weeks of Spring Training. But overall, he is one of the worst hitters in the Mariners lineup right now.

Obviously, I want the Mariners first baseman to succeed but we might be expecting it too soon. The glove maestro is just 24-years-old and made the leap from Double-A to the big leagues so he might just need some more time.

There is also one last option you have as a fantasy owner: let Evan White go undrafted. You can always just keep a close eye on him on the free-agent market if you are really unsure about drafting him. Honestly, I might let that happen if it came down to it.

Unless Evan White turns things around this month, I would be very wary of drafting him prior to the last two to four rounds of the draft.