Mike Moustakas, 3B, Kansas City Royals
One of the winter’s most interesting free-agent test cases, Mike Moustakas began the year on fire. Through his first 122 plate appearances, he slashed a healthy .302/.336/.578 with 8 home runs and more RBI (19) than strikeouts (15). That all sussed out to a 143 wRC+ and .382 wOBA, immediately making him an intriguing trade candidate for the rebuilding Royals.
He hasn’t been able to keep that magic going, though.
The veteran third baseman has improved his walk rate over the past month and a half (9.0% in 166 plate appearances), but his triple slash has spiraled down to .224/.295/.395 with just 5 homers and 23 RBI. One could say he’s running into a bit of tough luck after looking at his batted-ball profile — Moustakas posted a 45.5% hard-hit rate with a 34.0% ground-ball rate in April, followed by marks of 44.8% and 32.3%, respectively, since May 1st.
About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book about how to become a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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