I suspect that the real driver of Arreaz's poor performance is that his plan at the plate is to not strike out (a defensive approach), rather than a more offensive approach of trying to hit line drives. Or maybe (kinda like Xander) this is just who he is now.
It would be strange for him to change his approach in year 7 after 6 wildly successful years that got him to the cusp of a big payday. I think whatever underpins the massive deterioration in quality of contact, he’s not happy about it, and is trying to fix it.
The change began last season, and is now in full effect. His K-rate is way down, damned near impossible to do from where he had been, and his defensive approach dragged the BB% right along with it. That's my theory, anyway.
I suspect that the real driver of Arreaz's poor performance is that his plan at the plate is to not strike out (a defensive approach), rather than a more offensive approach of trying to hit line drives. Or maybe (kinda like Xander) this is just who he is now.
It would be strange for him to change his approach in year 7 after 6 wildly successful years that got him to the cusp of a big payday. I think whatever underpins the massive deterioration in quality of contact, he’s not happy about it, and is trying to fix it.
The change began last season, and is now in full effect. His K-rate is way down, damned near impossible to do from where he had been, and his defensive approach dragged the BB% right along with it. That's my theory, anyway.