Austin Meadows was the breakout big bat for the 2019 Tampa Bay Rays, hitting .291/.364/.558 and putting up a 143 wRC+ while leading the team with 33 homers.
Expectations for his role as a pillar of the offense were high, but then 2020 threw a wrench into plans. During intake testing at the beginning of Spring Training 2.0 Meadows tested positive for COVID-19. This delayed his preparation for the season by a few weeks and he ultimately wasn’t activated on the MLB roster until the second week of the season.
Meadows looked sluggish and just not quite up to speed, hitting .