Chris Young, SP, Kansas City Royals
2-4, 6.61 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, 64 IP, -1.5 WAR
$4.25 million salary
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Chris Young has spent his baseball career defying advanced statistical analysis by regularly posting a better ERA than his peripheral stats would expect. He has a career ERA of 3.84 but a career FIP of 4.57. He has allowed a .248 BABIP in his career, which is by far the best BABIP for any pitcher who has thrown 1,000 or more innings since 2004, when Young began his MLB career. Ted Lilly is second, with a .264 BABIP. During this stretch, Young’s left on base percentage is eighth out of 127 qualifying pitchers and his HR/FB percentage is 14th.
For years, Young has been able to induce a low BABIP, allow fewer home runs per fly ball, and strand a higher number of runners than the average pitcher. He was particularly good at these three things in 2014, when he won 12 games with a 3.65 ERA for the Mariners, and 2015, when he won 11 games with a 3.06 ERA for the Royals.
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This season, Young has continued to defy the BABIP gods with a .276 mark, 21 points below the league average, and he has an LOB% of 84.6 percent, which is 11.5 percent better than league average, but his HR/FB rate has gone through the roof. Young has allowed an incredible 26 home runs in 64 innings. After 11 years of limiting home runs on fly balls, he’s seen his HR/FB rate jump to 25.2 percent. One out of every four fly balls he’s allowed has gone over the fence. It’s been a truly awful year for Chris Young.