Sandy Alcantara, Miami Marlins
May Stats: 1-2 record, 15.5% strikeout rate, 13.0% walk rate, 3.23 ERA, 5.78 SIERA, and 0.1 fWAR in 30.2 innings
This is one of two pitchers where you look at some of the traditional stats — mainly his 3.23 May ERA — and wonder what the heck he’s doing here. Well, just look at the other peripherals highlighted above. They’re not pretty. He was actually on this list last month, and although he has lifted his strikeout rate a bit, it’s been accompanied with a higher walk rate.
Walking that many runners without an elite strikeout rate and an inflated strand rate (64.9% in March/April, 78.8% in May) on a team that isn’t an offensive juggernaut might not end well.
We do have some silver lining to cover, though. Alcantara’s quality of contact has consistently improved and is currently sitting at career-best levels (23.2% soft-hit rate and 28.8% hard-hit rate). Although his 11.4% walk rate is still too high, it’s at least moving in the right direction — that number was 15.8% through 34 innings last year in Miami.
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