Jakob Junis, Kansas City Royals
Not much went right for the Royals in 2018, as they suffered through their first season of 100-plus losses since 2006. There was at least a positive progression as the year went on from Jakob Junis, though.
The 26-year-old righty owned a 5.13 ERA and .343 wOBA against through 101.2 first-half innings, but improved those marks to 3.46 and .318, respectively, in 75.1 second-half frames. He was victimized by dingers to start the year (2.12 HR/9) but improved significantly after the All-Star game (0.96).
Although Junis’ hard-hit rate allowed didn’t budge very much (42.0% to 39.7%), he did cut his fly-ball rate down from 42.7% to 29.3%. Some of that difference went to his ground-ball rate, but more of it went to his line-drive rate (17.8% to 25.2%), which is why his BABIP allowed increased to .333 (.247 in first half).
The one constant the hurler must keep up is his command of the strike zone — his 5.7% walk rate is right in line with what he did as a rookie in 2017 (5.9%).
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