Hunter Dozier, Kansas City Royals
March/April Stats: 1.133 OPS, .337 ISO, 7 homers, 17 RBI, good for a 195 wRC+ and 1.6 fWAR in 103 plate appearances
For a team that’s in the beginning stages of a rebuild and entering May with a 9-20 record, Hunter Dozier is the kind of bright spot Royals fans need. Through his first 409 MLB plate appearances, Dozier put together a -0.9 fWAR with just 11 home runs. As you can see from his above stats, he’s already surpassed or is poised to surpass those numbers in short order.
The 27-year-old’s plate-discipline stats have also improved quite a bit (50.1% swing rate in ’18, 37.0% so far in ’19), but there’s been a significant shift in his batted-ball profile. His current 46.4% hard-hit rate isn’t much different than last year (44.9%), but his 31.9% ground-ball rate (41.3% in ’18) and 49.3% fly-ball rate (36.6% in ’18) sure have changed.
This increase in fly balls has also been accompanied by a drop in infield flies — after posting an 8.6% rate last year, that number is currently sitting at 0.0%.
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