Lane Thomas

Lane Thomas

29-Year-Old OutfielderOF
Cleveland Guardians
2024 Fantasy Outlook
Thomas took another improbable step forward last season, finishing as one of 19 MLB players to go 20-20 in 2023 while also surpassing the century mark in runs scored. It all added up to just a 109 wRC+ and 2.7 fWAR across 682 plate appearances, as Thomas' middling on-base percentage and defensive metrics dinged him. Traded twice earlier in his career, including in exchange for Jon Lester in 2021, Thomas was a popular name at the trade deadline, but Washington surprised many by holding onto the outfielder. While last season may very well go down as his career year, the Nationals clearly believe in the late bloomer's production. His low walk rate and issues with same-side pitching could catch up to him in time, but Thomas should be expected to be in the lineup every day under manager Dave Martinez to begin 2024. Read Past Outlooks
RANKS
Rest of Season From Preseason
#107
ADP
$Signed a one-year, $5.45 million contract with the Nationals in January of 2024. Traded to the Guardians in July of 2024.
Cracks 15th homer in win
OFCleveland Guardians
September 24, 2024
Thomas went 1-for-3 with a two-run home run and an additional RBI in Tuesday's 6-1 victory over the Reds.
ANALYSIS
The Cleveland outfielder hit the team's second homer of the opening frame, smacking a 370-foot, two-run shot off starter Carson Spiers. Thomas later added another RBI in the seventh inning to plate the Guardians' final run of the contest. The 29-year-old has continued to stay hot in September, as he's now hitting .291 (23-for-79) with seven homers, 12 runs scored and 20 RBI across 22 games this month. Overall, Thomas is slashing .241/.313/.408 with 15 homers, 64 runs scored and 63 RBI while going 32-for-46 on steals across 517 plate appearances.
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Batting Stats
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2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2024 MLB Game Log
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2023 MLB Game Log
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2022 MLB Game Log
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Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
4
46
7
1
22
1
6
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
1
27
3
2
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2022
 
 
+24%
OPS vs LHP
2024
 
 
+36%
OPS vs LHP
2023
 
 
+32%
OPS vs LHP
2022
 
 
+9%
OPS vs LHP
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2022vs Left .853 539 81 21 66 22 .294 .351 .502
Since 2022vs Right .686 1219 147 39 135 38 .231 .290 .395
2024vs Left .878 145 18 4 16 13 .302 .386 .492
2024vs Right .646 383 47 11 47 19 .214 .279 .367
2023vs Left .948 192 36 9 28 9 .331 .375 .573
2023vs Right .719 490 65 19 58 11 .242 .292 .427
2022vs Left .743 202 27 8 22 0 .253 .302 .441
2022vs Right .682 346 35 9 30 8 .234 .301 .381
More Splits View More Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2022
 
 
+6%
OPS on Road
2024
 
 
+19%
OPS on Road
2023
 
 
+29%
OPS at Home
2022
 
 
+46%
OPS on Road
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2022Home .716 856 113 30 86 32 .242 .304 .413
Since 2022Away .756 902 115 30 115 28 .259 .314 .443
2024Home .651 277 33 8 21 17 .214 .292 .359
2024Away .773 251 32 7 42 15 .263 .327 .446
2023Home .887 325 51 15 51 14 .312 .354 .534
2023Away .689 357 50 13 35 6 .227 .280 .409
2022Home .567 254 29 7 14 1 .181 .252 .315
2022Away .825 294 33 10 38 7 .293 .344 .481
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Stat Review
How does Lane Thomas compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
0.32
 
BB Rate
8.3%
 
K Rate
25.9%
 
BABIP
.298
 
ISO
.163
 
AVG
.237
 
OBP
.309
 
SLG
.400
 
OPS
.709
 
wOBA
.312
 
Exit Velocity
88.8 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
34.7%
 
Barrels/PA
4.7%
 
Expected BA
.246
 
Expected SLG
.383
 
Sprint Speed
25.3 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
38.5%
 
Line Drive %
20.9%
 
Fly Ball %
40.6%
 
Advanced Batting Stats
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Additional Stats
Games By Position
Defensive Stats
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Batted Ball Stats
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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Lane Thomas See More
MLB DFS Picks: FanDuel Plays and Strategy for Saturday, October 19
17 days ago
FanDuel's ALCS Game 5 picks include Cleveland slugger Lane Thomas and company hoping to force a Game 6 in the Bronx.
MLB DFS Picks: DraftKings Plays and Strategy for Saturday, October 19
17 days ago
There's some solid selections for Game 5 of the ALCS on DraftKings' Saturday MLB showdown slate.
MLB DFS Picks: FanDuel Plays and Strategy for Friday, October 18
18 days ago
Mookie Betts collected four hits, four RBI and one home run in Game 4 of the NLCS. He's a top hitting option for Friday FanDuel MLB DFS contests.
MLB DFS Picks: DraftKings Plays and Strategy for Monday, October 14
22 days ago
In his last five games, Lane Thomas is averaging 10.8 DraftKings points. He's a top hitting option for Monday DraftKings MLB DFS contests.
DFS MLB: DraftKings Picks and Plays for Saturday, October 12
24 days ago
Selections for the deciding game of the Guardians-Tigers series have been presented for Saturday's DraftKings MLB showdown slate.
Past Fantasy Outlooks
2023
2022
2021
2020
Thomas revitalized his career in Washington with an .853 OPS in 45 games after he was acquired at the 2021 trade deadline, and he followed up with a solid campaign last year. He saw significant playing time in all three outfield spots and posted a 96 wRC+ with 17 home runs, 52 RBI, 62 runs and eight steals in 146 games. Thomas' numbers don't jump off the page, but he was a decent lineup piece for a Nationals team that is now in a full rebuild after shipping Juan Soto to the Padres. The RBI and run totals are likely to be stunted by Washington's weak lineup, but Thomas could be a depth option for fantasy managers in 2023, as he should receive plenty of playing time if he continues to put up similar numbers.
A fifth-round pick by Toronto in 2014, Thomas was traded first to St. Louis for international cap space and then to Washington last July in exchange for Jon Lester. He enjoyed a nice run with the Nationals following the move, slashing .270/.364/.489 with seven homers and four steals in 45 games. Because it was such a small sample, Thomas won't pop up on any leaderboards, but his Statcast hard-hit rate was pushing 50% after the trade. Many late bloomers have tempted us but failed to achieve sustained success, and Thomas may very well fit into that category in time, but the plate discipline was strong last year to go with the batted-ball profile. Plus this was not completely out of the blue; Thomas enjoyed a similar hot stretch at the major-league level with the Cardinals in 2019. This is not a bad flier to take if you need five outfielders, but know Thomas is still finding his footing in the big leagues.
It was reported in August that Thomas had tested positive for COVID-19. He returned to a reserve outfielder role at the end of the month, but Thomas simply could not provide the Cardinals with production, leaving the team little choice but to send him back to the alternate site Sept. 16. Thomas did not rejoin the club, but after a full offseason, he should be ready to compete for a roster spot in camp.
Thomas is one of 118 players in the history of MLB to hit a home run in their first major-league at-bat. He joined the St. Louis organization after being dealt from Toronto in exchange for international cap space. As Thomas has worked his way up the chain, he has positioned himself as the next candidate for Cardinals Devil Magic to strike where a seemingly average player performs at a higher level than his projections say he will. He doesn't have a great offensive profile, but will accept his walks and use his speed to take extra bases and swipe bases. The depth chart in front of him got a little less crowded after a couple outfielders were traded to Tampa Bay this offseason. There could eventually be an opportunity for Thomas to show what he can do with semi-regular work. He is a potential 15-20 steal guy with enough playing time.
More Fantasy News
Heads to bench Sunday
OFCleveland Guardians
September 22, 2024
Thomas is not in Sunday's lineup against the Cardinals.
ANALYSIS
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Clubs homer in win
OFCleveland Guardians
September 21, 2024
Thomas went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in Friday's 5-1 win over the Cardinals.
ANALYSIS
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Provides lone run in loss
OFCleveland Guardians
September 17, 2024
Thomas went 1-for-3 with a solo home run and a walk in Tuesday's 4-1 loss to the Twins.
ANALYSIS
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Stays hot with homer, double
OFCleveland Guardians
September 14, 2024
Thomas went 2-for-4 with a solo home run, a double and two total runs scored in Saturday's 6-1 win over the Rays.
ANALYSIS
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Three hits, four RBI in win
OFCleveland Guardians
September 11, 2024
Thomas went 3-for-4 with four RBI and a run scored in Wednesday's 6-4 win over the White Sox.
ANALYSIS
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Latest Fantasy Rumors
Kansas City involved
OFWashington Nationals
July 28, 2024
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Thomas is one of three right-handed bats the Royals are targeting.
ANALYSIS
Thomas' eight homers and .728 OPS through 76 games this season is a bit underwhelming after he clubbed 28 homers with a .783 OPS last year. However, the outfielder has already set a career high with 28 stolen bases, and he has a .299/.420/.373 slash line in his past 18 contests. The Royals haven't been getting consistent offensive production from their outfielders this season, so Kansas City would be a logical landing spot for Thomas.
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