What happened to Corey Dickerson?

At any point during the first half of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2018, if someone were to ask you who their best offensive player was, the answer was an easy one; it was Corey Dickerson.

Once looked at as the lone bright spot from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ most recent off season, the veteran left fielder quickly made a strong impact with Bucco fans with his consistency at the plate and hustle in the field and on the bases. Despite going through a minor slump in June, Dickerson put together a solid first half for the Pirates this year, producing a slash line of .306/.340/.469.

When Dickerson came to the Pirates, there were rumors about him having issues in the field and with durability. Many claimed that because he had been frequently used as a Designated Hitter in 2017 by the Tampa Bay Rays that he would struggle to produce at a high level during the full length of an MLB season.

Dickerson quickly proved the doubters wrong on the first of his two red flags. In the opening months of the 2018 campaign he showed decent range in left field and at one time led all of baseball in outfield assists.

During the beginning of the second half of this season, it seemed if Dickerson’s critics were wrong once again, as he became smoldering hot in the month of July, hitting six doubles, three triples, six home runs and posting an OPS of 1.253. After being moved to the top spot in the order he became not only the most dangerous bat in the Pirates lineup, but during a short period of time, one of the hardest outs in the entire league.

And then…

However, after sustaining an injury against the Cleveland Indians on July 24, Dickerson has not been the same. Since returning to the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 4, Dickerson has continuously struggled, hitting just .200/.211/.236 with four doubles, two walks and 27 strikeouts in the 30 games he has played in.

While at first glance, one would simply assume that Dickerson’s decline is completely health related. On paper, it would seem that he rushed his return because the team was competing for a wild card spot and he wanted to be there to help in any way that he could. Though it had been reported that Dickerson was against the decision the team made to place him on the disabled list and wanted to continue playing through his pain, the injury itself, a hamstring strain was labeled by the team’s medical staff as the lowest grade of a strain possible.

With that being said, if the hamstring injury even if the hamstring injury was effecting Dickerson’s production after his return, it shouldn’t be the reason for his struggles that he is still currently going through. If Dickerson is still injured, he shouldn’t and wouldn’t be playing. Especially now with the Pirates nowhere near a playoff spot.

So if it isn’t the injury, what is it? What is responsible for Dickerson’s rapid decline that began last month? His approach hasn’t changed yet, his statistics have. When you look over the numbers, the first thing that jumps out is Dickerson’s strikeout rate. During his hot streak in July, he was striking out in just 9.6% of his at bats. That number jumped all the way up to 23% in August. While that 13.4% increase over one month might seem drastic, when you consider the fact that over his career Dickerson has been able to post a.785 OPS in the second half despite having a 22.4K% during that same time period, it still doesn’t make sense as to why Dickerson is struggling this much.

Unless Dickerson hits nine home runs in the next three weeks, this year will mark the first time in his big league career that he will have had over 400 plate appearances and not hit over 20 home runs. It became clear early on this season that Dickerson was not going to have the power numbers that he had been known to be capable of achieving. While this realization was discouraging, the fact that Dickerson was leading the Bucs in the majority of offensive categories along with leading the National League in hitting in late July seemed to be a fair trade off. However, Dickerson is on pace to finish the second half of the 2018 season with a batting average under .290 and an OPS under .700. Those numbers are not ideal for anyone, especially for a player that isn’t hitting many home runs.

Could the answer be as simple as his critics said when he came here? Is Dickerson simply incapable of matching his first half production in the second half of the year because he lacks durability? If this is the case, one would certainly hope that if he remains a Pirate for a few more years, that he and the club will find some sort of solution that will reduce his second half drop off in the seasons to come.