Struggling Aces: Top Pitchers Off to Slow Starts
May 7, 2019Through one month of the 2019 MLB season, players are still working on finding their games and getting back to the level of play they’re used to. For the most part teams are still floating around .500, with only the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers reaching 20 wins and the Miami Marlins as the lone team to not yet hit double-digit wins.
Notable players have been off to a slow start to the new season – especially certain star pitchers around Major League Baseball. One reason for slumping pitchers is the new balls being used across the league, with pitchers going as far to say that the new baseballs “suck.” Major League Baseball admitted the new balls that are being used have directly contributed to the home run increase, with the last three seasons ranking in the top four seasons all-time for total home runs.
What’s different between the new balls and those used in the past? Rob Arthur, a writer at Baseball Prospectus, determined that the density of the core of the baseball has dropped by 40 percent. The typical baseball core is made of cork and rubber, but a decrease in density of that core makes the ball travel longer and farther than it normally would have.
Who knows if these new baseballs are the primary reason for certain pitchers’ slow starts across the league, but regardless, there are aces in Major League Baseball who haven’t been pitching up to their ability – especially after receiving a big payday from their clubs.
Chris Sale – Boston Red Sox
The lefty-ace of the World Series champion Boston Red Sox was arrived in Beantown back in 2017 after being traded by the Chicago White Sox. In two seasons in Boston, the southpaw hasn’t had an ERA above 3.00 and finished second in Cy Young Award voting last season after posting a career-best 2.11 ERA as a starter.
During Spring Training, the Red Sox decided it was in the team’s best interest to lock up the dominant lefty, signing Sale to a five-year, $145 million contract extension. Sale was one of many star pitchers to receive a hefty payday, but for the Red Sox, the investment hasn’t paid off so far.
Sale has started seven games for the Red Sox as of May 6, and has only posted one win to go with five losses – one more than he had all of last year. To make matters worse for the 30-year-old, he also has a 5.25 ERA. Sale’s struggles are one of the reasons for his team’s poor start to the season, with the defending champs currently sitting at 17-18, five games back of the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays.
Corey Kluber – Cleveland Indians
The two-time AL Cy Young Award winner has been his dominant self for the Indians each of the last three years, being named an All Star all three seasons and winning the 2017 AL Cy Young Award, the second of his career.
Kluber bet on himself after an abysmal 2015, the season that followed up a sensational 2014 which won the right-handed pitcher his first Cy Young Award. The Indians inked the pitcher to a five-year extension worth $38.5 million. The contract has certainly paid off for Cleveland as the team has won the AL Central Division each of the last three years. The Birmingham, AL native is in the final year of his contract, but the deal contains club options for each of the next two seasons worth $17.5 million and $18 million, respectively.
It was safe to assume that the Indians would certainly pick up Kluber’s option for next season, keeping the righty in Ohio for another year – but that could come into question if the pitcher doesn’t turn his season around, as $17.5 million is an expensive investment for an ERA that nears 6.00.
Entering May 6, Kluber has two wins to go with three losses in seven starts, along with a 5.80 ERA. Unfortunately for Kluber – and the Indians – those stats won’t be getting better any time soon, as the team placed him on the injured list last Thursday with a bone fracture in his pitching arm. Manager Terry Francona says Kluber will be in a cast for the next three weeks and X-Rayed once a week afterwards to check on the progress. The injury happened after Kluber was struck in the arm by a line drive off the bat of Miami’s Brian Anderson last Wednesday in a game that the Tribe lost, 4-2.
Jacob deGrom & Noah Syndergaard – New York Mets
The two pitchers that headline New York’s highly regarded rotation have been struggling to start the new season, but have recently started turning things around.
Starting with deGrom, the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner signed an extension worth $137.5 million to stay in Queens for the next five years. The contract was worked out just days before the regular season began for the Metropolitans and was made official on Tuesday, March 26 when the rest of the team was wrapping up their Spring Training working out in Syracuse, NY, home to the Mets’ new AAA affiliate.
deGrom showed his former agent and current general manager Brodie Van Wagenen why he was worth the investment almost immediately as the righty tossed 13 shutout innings over his first two starts of the season, striking out 24 batters and winning both decisions against the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins, respectively. However, the success wouldn’t continue for deGrom, as the pitcher began to falter his next three starts, allowing 14 earned runs and being pulled after just four innings of work twice. In his most recent start on May 1 against the Cincinnati Reds, deGrom looked like his dominant self again, tossing seven shutout innings while striking out six. That’s the type of deGrom the Mets expect to get every time he steps onto the mound, and the type of deGrom they invested so much money into. Overall, deGrom has a 2-3 record with a 3.82 ERA through six starts.
As for Syndergaard, the man known as “Thor” has also had his share of struggles to start the season, as he currently owns a 5.02 ERA and the same 2-3 record as deGrom through the same amount of starts.
Syndergaard’s season didn’t start the same way deGrom’s did, as the hard-throwing pitcher allowed four earned runs in his first start of the year, a game which he received the victory and the Mets won, 11-8. It didn’t get much better after that for the Texas native, as he gave up 20 earned runs in his next five starts.
On May 2 against Cincinnati, Syndergaard finally showed the form that makes him one of the more feared pitchers in the league, as he tossed what might be the best game of his career, let alone the season. The righty threw a complete-game shutout, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out 10. The Mets would end up winning the game 1-0, with Syndergaard contributing his club’s lone run by way of a solo home run in the third inning. If Syndergaard can put together a few more quality starts like he had last week against the Reds, he can see his ERA decline back to a respectable level.
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