he’s one of the guys with the largest discrepancy between airball and groundball exit velo. this is a skill in at least some players. if he’s a guy who is simply focusing on driving hittable pitches in the air, albeit only pitches high in the zone, then that’s a fairly talent maximizing approach that should be productive going forward. it’s just that, when he’s reliant on only airballs for most of his production, losing a little bit of power on those could hurt him badly. he’s right along that very sensitive portion of the exit velo/production chart.

now what i said above should be reflected in xwoba, but looking at his rolling average velo chart, there’s a couple pretty steep dips in his 2nd half. that could point to injuries hampering his production.

if it’s injuries, then he should be fine going forward. amazing even, if he gains some power.