#22. Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
2015 WAR: 3.8
2014 WAR: 1.0
WAR Improvement: 2.8
So long as he’s fully recovered from a back injury that required surgery and kept him out for the end of the 2015 campaign, Ryan Braun should keep mashing for the Milwaukee Brewers — or whichever team he’s traded to now that his long-time home “would not hesitate to move” him, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.
PED scandals have tarnished his reputation, and the occasional health scares are, well, scary. But Braun’s still one of MLB’s premier sluggers when his body is in peak condition. The 2014 season remains the only one throughout his entire entire career in which he failed to produce an OPS+ on the right side of 130.
Now that Braun is back in the swing of things, nothing about his production indicates his return to form in 2015 was out of the ordinary. He didn’t see an inordinate number of hits avoid the gloves of fielders; his number of line drives was fairly typical, and the percentage of fly balls that resulted in homers was only a bit elevated when compared to his career norm.