Relief Pitcher: Liam Hendriks, Oakland Athletics
2019 fWAR: 3.8
It’s safe to say that Hendriks’ breakout campaign kind of came out of nowhere. Heading into 2019, his career fWAR was just 4.4, a number that spanned from 2011-18. Although Blake Treinen took a big step back this past year, he posted the highest reliever fWAR in 2018, giving the A’s the best reliever in baseball for two straight years.
To help put just how good that 3.8 fWAR from Hendriks is into perspective, check this out: it is not only the highest number produced by a reliever this decade, but it’s also the second-highest number since 2000. Only Eric Gagne‘s 4.7 fWAR in 2003 is higher than what the 30-year-old right-hander just did.
Hendriks easily posted a career-high 37.8% strikeout rate in 2019 after never finishing a year with that percentage being higher than 28.6%. He still threw his fastball around 70.0% of the time and paired that with a slider at a 20.0%-plus clip, but his curveball usage went up significantly.
Beween 2016 and 2018, that number continually went down from 4.9% to 1.8%, but it jumped back up to 7.8% — the highest it’s been since 2012 (13.7%). It’s also safe to say that hitters struggled against it. You know, based on the .192 OPS, -50 wRC+ (!), and 80.8% (!!!) strikeout rate that offering produced.
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 and created an online class about how to get started as a sports blogger. Check those out and more helpful tips on sports blogging at his website.
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