Yusei Kikuchi strikeouts last game: Trade,Fantasy,Stats,Contract

Houston acquired the experienced southpaw for three prospects before the 2024 MLB trade deadline. Today we will discuss about Yusei Kikuchi strikeouts last game: Trade,Fantasy,Stats,Contract.

Yusei Kikuchi strikeouts last game: Trade,Fantasy,Stats,Contract

The Houston Astros raised eyebrows on Monday night when, just less than 24 hours before Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, they acquired left-handed starter Yusei Kikuchi from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for three prospects: Right. infielder Jake Bloss, outfielder/first baseman Joey Loperfido, and infielder Will Wagner.

Apparently, public reaction believed this was an overpayment on Houston’s part. The Astros were parting ways with players who were ranked by Baseball America as the No. 2, 5 and 19 prospects in exchange for Kikuchi, a pitcher with an 85 ERA in his first 22 starts this season. It’s not like Kikuchi has a history of dominance. Only twice in his first five big-league seasons has he finished with an ERA over 93 (traditionally where the average starting pitcher falls) and only once has he finished above 100, and that came last season. .

Inside the industry, reaction varied. Negotiations with multiple rival valuations have painted a picture of a deal that is much fairer than not. In fact, if we graded this trade like we do for most notable deals, we’d give both parties a B grade for their work here — there wouldn’t be as big a disparity as you might suspect. We’ll go into more detail below as we tackle three reasons why the Astros were right to make the deal they did.

kikuchi upside down unused
we know. It seems a bit ridiculous to boast about the 33-year-old’s potential. It doesn’t help that Kikuchi’s potential rarely informs Kikuchi’s reality. Still, what we’ve heard from other teams is that they like him too, partly because of how their internal, proprietary pitch-quality models graded his offerings.

The public strives to emulate those models in terms of Kikuchi’s arsenal – particularly his fastball and slider. (His changeup also grades well, but its utility seems more limited.) FanGraphs’ Stuff Met.

Trade

I’ve been pondering the fate of Yusei Kikuchi at the trade deadline for months. This seems extremely specific – there are a lot of players who are traded every year. Why wonder about this one guy? He has a 4.75 ERA this year and a 4.72 mark for his career. He will be a free agent at the end of the year. months? Shouldn’t I be doing something more useful with my time? Perhaps. But hey, now I’m in a better position to write about this particularly surprising deadline transaction: Last night, the Blue Jays traded Kikuchi to the Astros in exchange for a bumper crop of young players: Jake Bloss, Joey Loperfido. , and Will Wagner .

Kikuchi turns analysts like me into Fox Mulder: We want to believe. We’re talking about the guy who has the most beautiful fastball in baseball. Its size is very good. He throws hard, throwing 94-96 mph and topping out around 99. Stuff models love it. PitchingBot believes this is the worst fastball ever thrown by a starter, and tied for the best overall (along with Sonny Gray’s fastball) after considering location. The material is skeptical, relatively speaking — it thinks the fastball is third-best among starters behind the heaters of Cooter Crawford and Zack Wheeler.

Yusei Kikuchi strikeouts last game: Trade,Fantasy,Stats,Contract

Kikuchi throws a nice slider to complement the fastball, with sharp bite for 88-90 mph and a gyro slider. He completes his arsenal with a hard, two-plane curveball and a bizarre slider that seems to simultaneously float and fade. He does it with a funky arm slot and a deceptive delivery.

When Kikuchi is on, he is capable of single-handedly demolishing the opposing team. His first 10 starts this season were phenomenal: 2.64 ERA, 2.61 FIP, 26% strikeout rate and a modest 5.5% walk rate. He continued to improve in Toronto, and this year looked like his breakout.

Since then, things have gotten significantly worse. I’m talking about a bad 6.87 ERA and 4.67 FIP, with only 12 of 13 homers in bad starts.

Fantasy

The Astros certainly have their guesses – it’s likely related to pitch usage, location or some combination thereof. One potential change in our view relates to Kikuchi’s curveball. This has been his worst-performing pitch this season, surrendering an Arsenal-worst mark of .291 average and 91.1-mph exit velocity, yet he has used it as his main secondary offering. Have done. Kikuchi would certainly benefit from reducing his curveball usage in favor of throwing more sliders and changeups.

We’ll see if the Astros agree, and we’ll see if any other projections they have about Kikuchi’s game translate into an improved performance. Remember, this type of work is not as easy as it may seem; If this were the case, Kikuchi would not have joined his third organization without achieving more MLB success to his name.

Here’s a truth that may seem self-evident, but it gets lost in the shuffle when it comes to immediate analysis: being a top prospect in some systems means a lot more than being a top prospect in other systems. That’s a nice way of saying it: The Astros’ farm system is weak. It’s not general manager Dana Brown’s fault; This is what happens when a team has spent a decade making win-now moves and selecting late in the first round (or not at all). Pennants, not farm system rankings, are what mattered to the Astros and still do.

Each of the prospects they threw up on Monday are interesting in their own right, but also far from fitting the traditional “top prospect” profile. To the evaluators we spoke to, Bloss comes across as a back-end starter. Loperfido has struggled to make reliable contacts in the majors — a worrisome development, considering he is 25 years old and offers limited defensive value. Wagner (son of former MLB All-Star Billy Wagner) has hit .307 with more walks than strikeouts in Triple-A, yet his complete lack of in-game power raises questions about his ceiling.

Stats

Contract

The 33-year-old Kikuchi is 4-9 with a 4.75 ERA in 22 starts this season, striking out 130 and walking 30 in 115 2/3 innings. He is 0-4 with a 7.75 ERA in eight games since a win at Milwaukee on June 11.

Kikuchi is 35-46 with a 4.72 ERA in six seasons with Seattle and the Blue Jays. He has a $10 million salary in the final season of a $36 million, three-year contract and can become a free agent after the World Series.

Astros manager Joe Espada said, “His stuff has always been very good.” “I’m excited to add him to our pitching department so we can make some adjustments to the way he pitches, how he can be more efficient, but things are going really good.”

Kikuchi joins a rotation that includes Ronel Blanco, Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez and Spencer Arrigetti. Houston’s rotation is missing Justin Verlander (neck stiffness), Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidi (both Tommy John surgeries).

Toronto manager John Schneider said it was difficult to say goodbye to Kikuchi and Justin Turner, who were traded to the Mariners in a separate deal.

Yusei Kikuchi strikeouts last game: Trade,Fantasy,Stats,Contract

“We wish him and (Turner) the best,” Schneider said. “I know they’re two American League teams, but you look at the people instead of the players, and they’re two of the most respected players in the big leagues.”

Bloss was ruled out of his scheduled start against Pittsburgh on Monday.

He was selected out of Georgetown with the 99th pick in the third round of the 2023 amateur draft and signed for a $497,500 signing bonus. Bloss made his major league debut on June 23 and is 0–1 with a 6.94 ERA in three starts. He went on the injured list a day after his big league debut due to right shoulder inflammation and was activated on July 11.

Yusei Kikuchi strikeouts last game: Trade,Fantasy,Stats,Contract

Bloss made 13 starts at three minor league levels this year and went 4-2 with a 1.64 ERA. Wagner is the son of former Astros closer Billy Wagner.

“A lot of these guys have high price tags,” Astros GM Dana Brown said. “To get a major league starter with that type of arm.