While getting off to a slow start is every ballplayer’s worst nightmare, getting off to a fast one is a dream come true. However, experiencing a great April doesn’t really matter much when the months to follow are full of struggles.
Just as we recently talked about certain hitters making their slow starts a distant memory, there are plenty of players who had a ton of fun in baseball’s first month of regular season play. Despite the best-case scenario coming true for them, it’s become a distant memory by seeing their overall stats head in the opposite direction — and pretty fast.
Here are five players who wish April never ended:
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Mat Latos, SP, Chicago White Sox
Entering May, Latos was easily one of the biggest surprises in baseball. Unfortunately for him, the regular season is six months long, not one.
Through his first five starts of 2016, the right-hander put together a very impressive 4-0 record to go along with a 1.84 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 29.1 innings of work. Paired with equally fast starts from Chris Sale and Jose Quintana in the rotation, these guys were a big reason why the White Sox were one of MLB’s best teams in the early going.
It would’ve been unfair (and very unrealistic) to expect this production from Latos to continue – especially since opponents were hitting just .218 off him and he wasn’t striking many out with a fastball sitting around 90 miles per hour.
Chicago had to know he’d regress, but they probably didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was. Over his next six starts (spanning 31 innings), Latos posted a 7.26 ERA and watched opposing hitters compile a .934 OPS against him. He struck out 17, but walked just as many and surrendered seven homers.
These results were so rough that the White Sox released him, and the right-hander is still looking for a job.
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Michael Conforto, OF, New York Mets
Although he’s only in his first full big-league season, Mets fans were ready to have Conforto sign a long-term deal by the end of April. It’s tough to blame them.
In 74 at-bats, the 23-year-old mashed to the tune of .365/.442/.676 with four homers and 18 RBI. He looked awfully comfortable as New York’s no. 3 hitter and his 1.3 fWAR was the fifth-highest number in all of baseball.
Now that we’re almost into July, his hot start seems like another lifetime. Conforto has only hit six more homers and driven in 12 more RBI since the start of May, while posting a lackluster .527 OPS. His season line has dropped to .227/.297/.441 through 211 at-bats, and manager Terry Collins even mentioned the possibility of sending him to Triple-A as part of a roster shakeup that didn’t really happen.
(UPDATE: That roster shakeup did finally happen, with Conforto heading down to Triple-A Las Vegas.)
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Gio Gonzalez, SP, Washington Nationals
With a rotation that includes Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer, the Nationals have a top-five starting staff with regard to team ERA (3.34) and WHIP (1.14). Gonzalez was part of that elite performance through April, but not so much since.
While his record stood at just 1-1, he posted an impressive 1.42 ERA and 0.99 WHIP to go along with 25 strikeouts in 25.1 innings. It’s been a bumpy ride since, which could be BABIP-driven (.254 in April, .327 in May and .394 in June). However, opposing hitters have been making more solid contact overall in 2016 compared to last year (28.7% hard-hit rate in ’15 to 32.9% in ’16).
Gonzalez’s record since the start of May hasn’t been good (2-5), but what’s been worse is the 5.49 ERA and .783 OPS through his most recent 57.1 innings. With a decrease in fastball velocity (92 mph in ’15, 90.1 in ’16), he must hit his spots in order to remain a positive contributor in this rotation.
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Aledmys Diaz, SS, St. Louis Cardinals
The rookie shortstop still proudly owns a .310/.362/.496 triple slash through 242 at-bats while playing his way into a regular role, so it’s tough to see where the struggle comes into play. In reality, his current season stats are mostly a byproduct of how insanely hot he was in April.
With Jhonny Peralta on the shelf, St. Louis had an open question at a crucial infield position. Once Diaz came out of nowhere to slash .423/.453/.732 with four homers and 13 RBI in his first 75 at-bats, they had an answer. The coaching staff and front office were so confident in his emergence that they sent Kolten Wong to Triple-A temporarily just to keep him on the big-league roster.
His production hasn’t totally fallen off a cliff, but Diaz has definitely come back down to Earth, slashing .263/.326/.398 with five homers and 22 RBI in 171 at-bats. That’s still pretty good, especially from a rookie shortstop, but is he actually a .300 hitter? He may be getting hot again (seven hits in his last four games), but it’d be unrealistic to expect Diaz to maintain his current batting line based off how much he’s cooled off.
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Colby Rasmus, OF, Houston Astros
As the Astros slogged out of the gate this year, Rasmus was one of the few bright spots in April. He became one of the first three players to ever accept the one-year qualifying offer last winter and was making it look like a bargain by hitting .263/.400/.579 with seven homers and 19 RBI.
Rasmus being patient was key – he had drawn 18 walks within the first month, while only striking out 22 times. He’s drawn just 13 free passes and has struck out 56 times since to go along with an uninspiring .574 OPS. You’d never know he started off so well at the plate just by looking at his current stats (.233/.319/.390).
Through those first 95 plate appearances, he looked like a hitter with a new approach that would eventually earn him a lucrative multi-year deal in a weak free agent class this winter. However, it looks like he could once again be in a similar situation to last winter if he doesn’t turn things around.
As we’ve mentioned numerous times in this space, the MLB regular season is six months long for a reason – this is a marathon, not a sprint. While each of these five players have seemingly lost a fair amount of the momentum they built up in April, there’s plenty of time to get it back.
When will they start producing consistent results again, though? For some of them, another question will also be how much of an opportunity they’ll have to get back on track in their current situation.
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to jumpstart your sportswriting career and aren’t sure how, check out my eBook. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter so we can chat about baseball: @mmusico8.
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