Six MLB pitchers who must bounce back from a tough second half

Hector Rondon, Houston Astros

Rondon finished his first year in Houston with a very respectable 3.20 ERA and 26.8% strikeout rate through 59 innings, but as you might’ve guessed, his second half wasn’t great.

This is likely a huge reason why he as left off the ALDS roster this past week. It’ll be hard for manager A.J. Hinch to trust a pitcher that owns a 5.47 ERA over his most recent 24.2 innings of work. It didn’t help that September was his worst month of all (9.72 ERA, .481 wOBA allowed in 8.1 innings), either.

On an overall basis, though, 2018 was a step in the right direction for Rondon after underwhelming for the Cubs during the past couple years. His 1.3 fWAR is more than the last two years combined (0.9) and after seeing his homers per nine innings rate stay above 1.40 in 2016 and 2017, it decreased to 0.61 this past year.