Every March, I post a list of players who I think are primed for significant upticks in their performances in the coming season. These are players who've already lost their rookie status but either haven't performed at all in the majors or perhaps just haven't lived up to expectations. Last year's list had several players who did indeed break out, including Shelby Miller, Xander Bogaerts and, to a lesser degree, Jason Heyward.
This year's list has nine players on it, broken into two categories. The first six are true breakout prospects, players who have yet to reach anything close to their full potential as big leaguers, all of whom were at one point significant prospects. The remaining three had success in less than a full season last year, so I'm projecting them to perform at a comparable or better level over the course of the entire 2016 season.
True breakouts
Jake Lamb, 3B, Arizona Diamondbacks
Lamb's 2015 season was wrecked by a foot injury that cost him about a third of the season, and seemed to have sapped his power even after he returned. Lamb can hit and should be a 40-doubles guy this year or next if he gets 500-plus at-bats, with 12-15 homers and a better average and OBP than he showed in 2015. This is more like the season I thought he was going to have last year after I saw him several times last spring training and saw how easy the swing was and how well he could square up quality pitches.