Dexter Fowler, St. Louis Cardinals
.170/.279/.298, 3 homers, 12 RBI, 62 wRC+ in 111 PA
March/April was tough for Fowler, but so was the whole year — the highest monthly wRC+ he had in 2018 was 80, which happened in May. His season was also cut short in August due to injury. Judging on how things were going, though, that was probably for the best.
Everything that could’ve gone wrong for the outfielder, did go wrong. His season-long wRC+ of 62 was just about half of what it was during his first season with the Cardinals (121), while his fWAR went from 2.5 to -1.2.
What really jumps out is how Fowler performed against breaking pitches. Against sliders in ’17, he posted a 57 wRC+ and 45.0% strikeout rate, which isn’t ideal, but it got much worse last year (-6 wRC+ and 55.9% strikeout rate). The same applies to curveballs — Fowler owned a 114 wRC+ and 23.5% strikeout rate in ’17, but those numbers cratered to -2 and 28.6%, respectively.
Adding Paul Goldschmidt will help lengthen this lineup, but St. Louis needs Fowler to be more than what he was if they plan on taking back the NL Central.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
