When you think of the top player, you tend to forget about a player on the small market team. Especially, when asked to name the top 5 third basemen in MLB, you probably would not think of Eugenio Suarez. He has steadily improved over the five seasons, but his numbers had been above the replacement level until 2018. However, the 2018 season was different. As opposed to his tendency of inconsistent hitting, he had been impeccable until the second half for the season. He hit .283 / .366 / .526 with 34 home runs, which is all his career-high. Although he had not received enough attention throughout the 2018 season, his numbers were outstanding. Only Jose Ramirez, Nolan Arenado and Matt Carpenter had hit more home runs than Eugenio Suarez not to mention that he did not give up on average for power. Now one question that might come to your mind is whether his numbers are sustainable.
His improvement is due to a change of batting stance. After adjusting batting stance, he was able to hit breaking ball better. His numbers against breaking ball improved a lot last season. He respectively hit .153 and .180 against curveball and changeup, but it got improved to .293 and .235 with more home runs. It is also important to note that he became more aggressive at the plate. He kept on reducing his swing rate ever since his debut. However, his swing rate increased to 44.6% from 42.1% for the first time this year. His target was exclusively inside pitch. It is backed up by the fact that his Z-swing significantly increased to 66.6% from 61.3% while his O-swing% is relatively the same. It led to the result that his expected outcome off inside pitch was significantly improved. Not only he was aggressive toward inside pitch, but he also hit very hard. His exit velocity jumped all the way up to 91.2 MPH from 86.2 MPH as well as the percentage of barrels that rose to 9.7% from 6.9%. His 45% hard-hit rate, which is far better than his last year’s 31.9%, indicates that he made excellent contacts and the quality of batted ball was considerably improved.
His plate discipline is so identical with previous seasons that it could be questionable if he can be productive as much as this year going forward. Nevertheless, there is an intriguing point regarding this criticism. Despite his underachieving second half, his plate discipline showed some sign of improvement after All-star break. As the zone chart indicates, he tried not to swing at a pitch up in the zone, which often costs many power hitters a strikeout. Overall, He reduced O-swing % by approximately 2% in the second half. As his second-half zone chart shows, he became more aggressive down the zone. It appears that he sets up the new hitting zone with the changed batting stance. He would keep testing out his pitch selection for the upcoming season as well. If he can figure out how to deal with outside pitch, he would be able to step up once again.
The depth of the third baseman in the leagues is very shallow recently. Only a handful of players can hit for both average and power. Eugenio Suarez utterly belongs to the group. As it is analyzed above, his power surge looks positively believable. He is already one of the elite third basemen who still can get better. His adjustment is still on progress. Once it is all done, he can be the next player to bring MVP award to Cincinnati after Joey Votto.
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