Jose Berrios, Minnesota Twins
Following a solid first full year in the big leagues during the 2017 season, Jose Berrios made an appearance on this list prior to 2018 getting underway. While he did take a step forward and surpassed the 190-innings-pitched mark, the positive movement was only slight when looking at his statistics.
The young right-hander’s fWAR increased a little (2.9 to 3.3), his ERA went down a little (3.89 to 3.84), and his strikeout rate went up slightly (22.6% to 25.4%). What did continue changing significantly was his SIERA — after posting a 5.36 mark during an abbreviated rookie season, it went down to 4.29 in ’17 before settling in at 3.80 this past year.
Berrios’ four-seam fastball has also been on a nice three-year trajectory. After that pitch produced a 188 wRC+ and 17.2% strikeout rate in 2016, those numbers improved to 115 and 23.3% in ’17 before improving again to 93 and 29.2%, respectively, in ’18.
He can fly under the radar because while he’s established himself as a viable rotation contributor the past two years, he’s hardly at the forefront of any Cy Young conversations. Berrios did earn his first All-Star selection this past year, so elbowing his way into this particular awards race is a possibility in 2019.
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