Dexter Fowler, St. Louis Cardinals
While Dexter Fowler’s first year in St. Louis was basically as advertised, everything went down the tubes in Year 2. Through 334 plate appearances, the switch-hitting outfielder slashed just .180/.278/.298. The 62 wRC+ and -1.2 fWAR he produced as a result were each among the 10 worst in baseball for players with at least 300 trips to the plate.
These struggles were then compounded by fracturing his left foot in August, which eventually ended his season.
Fowler’s 33.9% hard-hit rate still settled in above his career number (30.7%), but something else that stands out was his lack of line drives. Since 2009, he had never finished a year with a line-drive rate below 20.0%. That number was up at 22-23% in 2016 and 2017 before dipping down to 18.3% this past year.
His 50.0% hard-hit rate for this batted-ball event was actually the highest it’s been since 2010 (53.5%), but it was also accompanied by the second-highest soft-hit rate of his career (15.0%). Fowler’s 235 wRC+ in this particular situation is easily the worst number he’s produced since getting to the big leagues.
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