Mike Fiers, Oakland Athletics
Although the A’s non-tendered Mike Fiers following one of the best full seasons of his big-league career, Oakland re-signed the hurler to a two-year deal this winter. There’s good reason for that, too — the organization doesn’t have a lot of legitimate options in the rotation thanks to free agency and injuries.
As it currently stands, Fiers is actually at the top of the A’s depth chart when looking at the rotation. He only logged 53 innings by the Bay, but there are some peripheral stats he’ll need to improve upon in order to keep the good vibes of 2018 going into this year.
He did amp up his strikeout rate (24.5%) while keeping his walk rate among career-best levels (5.2%) with Oakland. However, opposing hitters launched 2.04 homers per nine innings against him off the strength of a 40.0% fly-ball rate, 3.4% infield-fly rate, and 45.2% hard-hit rate.
It’s always going to be tough for Oakland to consistently experience success because of financial limitations, but if they want to have a chance at doing so, Fiers needs to keep the magic alive.
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