When Daylen Lile gets hot, boy does he get hot. We saw a Lile heater last September when he went on a triple frenzy and won NL Player of the Month. He is doing it again this May, but this time he is showing off more home run power. Lile is now 10 for his last 20 with 4 homers, including what turned out to be the game winning shot last night.
After the game, I asked Lile and Blake Butera about what was going right for him. Butera said that Lile has been catching more balls out in front lately. He also added that Lile is the type of hitter that can really go on a roll once he sees a few balls hit grass. For his part, Lile agreed that his timing has been better lately.
Lile told me that one of the keys to his recent success has been starting his toe tap just a little bit earlier. That has allowed his hitting moves to be more on time. This honestly makes a lot of sense to me. In April, it felt like Lile was consistently just a beat late. That is not the case anymore, and he has been crushing balls to the pull side.
In May, Lile is hitting .319 with a 1.051 OPS. These last couple series, we have seen truly special things from Lile. When he is on his game, Lile is my favorite hitter to watch on the team. His swing is just so pretty and everything he does looks so effortless. He can just spray balls all around the yard, while showing some real pop. In his last 7 games, Lile is 12 for 27, and looks like September Lile again.
The corner outfield duo of James Wood and Lile is one of the best ones in all of baseball. It is also such a young duo, with both players being 23 years old. Nats fans will be able to watch these two for years to come. Hopefully we will be able to watch them for the next decade together.
Lile is a player that Paul Toboni should seriously consider extending. Before the season, I wrote about how he was a prime extension candidate. He is good enough to be worthy of an extension, but I do not think the price would be astronomical either. Lile is not a Boras client or anything, so it is something that could be on the table.
Extending a player like Lile would give Paul Toboni a lot of good will with the fanbase. I also think it would be a smart baseball move. In my opinion, extending him is not that risky either. It is pretty clear that Lile’s bat plays in the big leagues, and he is getting better defensively as well. His fielding run value has gone from -10 last year to +1 this year.
That added defensive value to go with an above average bat gives Lile a pretty safe floor as a 2.5 win player. I think he has the ceiling to be more as well. We are seeing some real power from him this season. He has 7 homers already. If Lile can be a 20 homer bat, that would be massive for his profile.
Lile has played in 135 career games, which is pretty close to a full season’s worth of action. In those games, Lile is hitting .290 with an .829 OPS. He has 27 doubles, 11 triples and 16 homers to go with that. Daylen Lile is a very good hitter, and we have enough of a sample size to say that.
Lile can be a bit hot and cold, but the hot is really hot. Something about seeing his family in Cincinnati unleashed something in Daylen Lile. He carried the offense against the Reds, hitting three homers. His biggest homer came in the 10th inning the other day. Like last night, that homer ended up being the difference in a one run game.
Seeing Lile and his family go nuts when he hit that homer was amazing to watch. His dad was running down the steps in his section yelling ‘that is my son’. Meanwhile, Lile turned to the dugout and pointed to his throat to signal the game was over. It was a true outpouring of emotion that was so much fun to watch.
Between that emotion, and Lile’s sweet swing, the 23 year old has become a fan favorite in DC. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and it is so easy for fans to see that he cares. You can tell how happy he is when he is rolling and how upset he is when he is struggling. Maybe he can get too emotional at times, but from an outside view, I love seeing someone who cares that much.
Daylen Lile is one of my favorite players on the team, and these kinds of runs are why. The sweet-swinging lefty can carry a lineup and brings so much excitement to the field. One of the reasons the Nats lineup is so good is that they have a few guys who can carry the load. Along with CJ Abrams and James Wood, Daylen Lile is one of those guys.