A few notable players were activated from the disabled list today…
- The Mariners have activated right-hander Felix Hernandez; he’d been on the DL with lower back tightness, though it’s possible the DL stint had more to do with roster management than with the injury itself. The 2010 AL Cy Young Award-winner has continued to trend downwards this season, evidenced by a 5.13 ERA (and a 4.64 FIP that doesn’t paint a much more optimistic picture). He also sports a 7.43 K/9 that would be a full-season career low. In order to make room for the righty on the active roster, Seattle has optioned outfielder John Andreoli to Triple-A Tacoma.
- White Sox outfielder Nicky Delmonico will finally return after missing two months with a broken hand. After an intriguing 2017 rookie season in which he hit .262/.373/.482, the 26-year-old has failed to replicate that type of production. His .217 batting average and .292 slugging percentage are both dreadful disappointments across his first 139 plate appearances of 2018, though his 11.5% walk rate is a nice silver lining.
- Avisail Garcia will also make a return to the White Sox. The 27-year-old enjoyed a tremendous breakout campaign last season during which he batted at a .330 clip and slugged 18 homers across 561 plate appearances. However, the 2018 season has seen him walk at just a 1.4% clip, so while his .282 batting average is fairly impressive, his .297 on-base percentage looks almost like a liability. He’s managed to hit nine homers and six doubles across 148 plate appearances, though, which makes for a .542 slugging percentage.
Felix had a 7.2 K/9 just two years ago which is lower than what he’s sporting. His strikeouts aren’t the problem though,they’re actually not far off from his prime K numbers. he’s not inducing weak contact and his hr/9 has soared in the last few seasons.
What made Felix great is that he could always get a ground ball to get out of tough situations whenever he needed it. His mid 90’s fastball set up his changeup perfectly, which is what got all of those grounders. But now that the velocity difference isn’t a great is why he isn’t getting the same results.
Exactly. He needs to find a way to induce weak contact (grounders) which means less homers in the air fall into the stands.
Change what doesn’t work, which isn’t exactly easy when that was your bread and butter for so long.
While he was never a massive K guy, it’s s worrying trend to see his Ks going down, while the league rate of Ks is going up. 8-9 K/9 10 years ago is probably equivalent to 10% more now, so seeing a decline in an environment that’s probably giving him a bump in thst category already, highlights more issues.
Spot on about weak contact and home run issues – he just can’t get the ball past hitters anymore and they are squaring him up.
The King is back…
Congratulations Nicky Delmonico. Welcome back. But if you are coming back tonight then who was that guy playing left field last night?
A number 3 at best, an expensive number 3