MLB's Biggest Winners and Losers 3 Weeks into 2020 Season
The 2020 Major League Baseball season is rolling right along, as many teams are a third of the way into their 60-game schedules.
As we do every week, it's time to separate the winners from the losers.
Because it hasn't quite been a full week since our last check-in on August 8, we allowed ourselves some leeway with our latest temperature check. Some of our hand-picked storylines are relatively new developments, while others have been building for a while longer.
Let's take a look at 10, with five on either side of the winners/losers spectrum.
Note: Stats and records are current heading into play Thursday.
Winner: Charlie Blackmon
1 of 10
Charlie Blackmon got off to a somewhat slow start, collecting only one hit through his first three games.
The Colorado Rockies saw a different side of Blackmon after that. In 14 games, spanning July 28 and August 11, he went 33-for-56 to raise his batting average to .500.
Even after an 0-for-4 effort against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, the 34-year-old still bears a .472 average through 18 games. That makes him the leading contender to become the first hitter since Ted Williams in 1941 to officially finish a season with at least a .400 average.
Obligatory asterisks aside, Blackmon's effort should be taken seriously. He's struck out only nine times and is hitting a ton of line drives. And by virtue of being a left-handed hitter, he's going to have the platoon advantage more often than not.
It also helps that Blackmon plays half his games at Coors Field, where he's a .352 career hitter.
Loser: Cody Bellinger
2 of 10
Elsewhere in the National League West, all is not well with the reigning NL MVP.
Cody Bellinger has appeared in 18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers' first 19 games, yet he's still struggling to get his bat going after baseball's four-month layoff. After hitting .305/.406/.629 with 47 home runs in 2019, he has only two long balls with a .165/.224/.266 slash line in 2020.
It's not all bad for the 25-year-old. He's giving the Dodgers strong defense in center field, and he's at least making regular contact with only 12 strikeouts in 85 plate appearances.
The trouble is, Bellinger just isn't driving the ball. His average exit velocity is down from 91.1 mph to 86.6 mph. His hard-hit percentage has likewise fallen from 46.0 to 23.9.
Cue Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to spell out what anyone who's watched Bellinger has seen so far: "I don't think that he's felt locked in."
Winner: Juan Soto
3 of 10
Just when their season was about to get underway, the Washington Nationals had to move Juan Soto to the sidelines after he tested positive for the coronavirus on July 23.
It wasn't until August 5 that he rejoined Washington's lineup. And whatever the exact opposite of "rusty" is, that's how he's looked in seven games since then.
Soto has collected 12 hits in his first 29 at-bats, with three doubles and five home runs. Four of those homers came this week against the New York Mets at Citi Field, including blasts of 463 feet and 466 feet.
Even before 2020, Soto had already established himself as an all-time great young hitter in 2018 and 2019. He joined Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott and Ty Cobb as the only hitters to make over 1,000 plate appearances and post an OPS+ of at least 140 through age 20.
Evidently, he's not about to slow down.
.jpg?w=256 "MLB Farm System Rankings")
Loser: Luis Robert
4 of 10
Elsewhere on the topic of young hitters, it wasn't that long ago that Luis Robert was on a Soto-ian track in his year with the Chicago White Sox.
Through 11 games, the 23-year-old was hitting .364/.429/.568 with two homers and four stolen bases. Those numbers, taken with his eye-popping peripherals, made him look like like a shoo-in for the American League Rookie of the Year.
However, his last eight games have pumped the brakes on that notion. Robert has recorded only four hits in 29 at-bats, with 12 strikeouts and one walk.
Robert still has superb underlying metrics in some departments, but it stands out just as much that he's in the seventh percentile for strikeouts and in the first percentile for whiffs. Lately, he's been having a bad time with high fastballs and low-and-away sliders.
Then again, that's not exactly a unique challenge for a rookie hitter. If Robert adjusts, he'll be fine.
Winner: Mike Trout
5 of 10
Mike Trout is a dad now. He and his wife, Jessica, welcomed their first son, Beckham, into the world July 30.
Otherwise, not much has changed for the Los Angeles Angels' three-time MVP in 2020.
Trout returned from paternity leave August 4 and promptly homered in his first trip to the plate. That's one of seven home runs he's hit in nine games since his return, a stretch in which he's also hit .351 with a 1.309 OPS.
As a result, Trout is back atop the American League leaderboard with a 201 OPS+. If he stays there through the end of the season, he'll become the first player to capture six straight OPS+ titles since a fella named Babe Ruth did it from 1926 to 1931.
This speaks to an arguably underrated dimension of Trout's game. While he's rightly acknowledged as baseball's best all-around player, acknowledgements that he's the game's best hitter should also be common.
Winner: Dylan Bundy
6 of 10
Speaking of the Angels, have you gotten a load of their new ace?
As early as it is, Dylan Bundy has earned that distinction by racking up a 1.57 ERA through his first four starts. He's been especially dominant in his last two, in which he's logged 16 innings and allowed only one run on eight hits and a walk with 20 strikeouts.
Thus is Bundy beginning to pull what ought to be called "a Gerrit Cole."
As Cole was with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bundy was once a top prospect in the Baltimore Orioles system. But he never lived up to his potential in Baltimore, rendering him little more than a reclamation project when the Angels traded for him last December.
As the Houston Astros fixed Cole, so have the Angels fixed Bundy. And the process wasn't even that complicated, as he merely needed to throw fewer fastballs in favor of more sliders, curveballs and changeups.
Loser: Robbie Ray
7 of 10
The anti-Bundy resides in Arizona and can only be seen when Robbie Ray takes the mound for the Diamondbacks.
The 28-year-old has yet to last longer than five innings in any of his four starts, and his totals through 17 innings include seven home runs, 14 walks and 20 runs (all earned) allowed.
On the plus side, Ray has at least managed to strike out 23 hitters. That's in line with how he initially crafted his All-Star reputation, as only Chris Sale and Max Scherzer have struck batters out at a higher rate since 2016.
The further good news is that Ray's fastball velocity is up, yet he's obviously struggling to find the zone and getting hit hard. In what sure seems like a related story, he's trying out an all-new arm action in 2020.
In any event, his struggles bode well for neither the Diamondbacks nor for his value on the upcoming free-agent market.
Loser: Atlanta's Starting Rotation
8 of 10
Even in his diminished state, Atlanta would probably love to have Ray in its rotation.
Brian Snitker's club does have a pretty good No. 1 in the person of Max Fried, but its starting pitching depth has otherwise been chipped away by the following developments:
- RHP Felix Hernandez: opted out
- RHP Mike Foltynewicz: designated for assignment
- RHP Mike Soroka: torn Achilles
- LHP Sean Newcomb: optioned to alternative training site
Atlanta is also awaiting veteran left-hander Cole Hamels' return from a triceps injury, but that apparently isn't imminent. For the time being, the club is giving Touki Toussaint, Bryse Wilson and Huascar Ynoa turns behind Fried.
"Suboptimal" is the word for that, so Atlanta may have little choice but to go all-in at the August 31 trade deadline. If it doesn't, a third straight NL East title may not be forthcoming.
Winner: Tampa Bay Rays
9 of 10
In winning eight of their first nine games, the New York Yankees didn't take long to stake out a position atop the AL East.
But as New York has come back to earth with losses in five out of its last nine, the Tampa Bay Rays have risen by winning seven out of eight.
Their pitching staff has done its part by allowing three runs or fewer in four of the club's last eight contests. The jewel of that effort was a Blake Snell-led two-hit shutout against the Yankees on August 7.
The Rays have to be just as thrilled, however, that their bats have finally awoken. Albeit with an assist from the Red Sox's awful pitching, the Rays went off for 42 runs in a four-game series in Boston this week.
Just like that, the Rays are 12-8 and in a race with the Yankees for the AL East's top playoff spot.
Loser: Minnesota Twins
10 of 10
In fairness to the Minnesota Twins, they're probably safe atop the AL Central.
They are off to a 12-7 start, after all, and it's a good guess that the Detroit Tigers won't keep up their hot pursuit. Cleveland is a better bet to challenge the Twins, but only if it gets its woeful offense squared away.
Nonetheless, the Twins are on a 2-5 run and saddled with offensive questions of their own.
Coming into the year, said offense appeared to be an upgraded version of the unit that co-led the majors with a 118 OPS+ and slammed a record 307 home runs in 2019. Yet the club is traveling in the middle of the pack in OPS+, and it'll be a while before big-ticket newcomer Josh Donaldson (calf strain) can help fix things.
Factoring in staff ace Jose Berrios' slow start, the Twins ought to at least be concerned about their playoff outlook even if a second straight division title is in the offing.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
.jpg?w=480 "MLB Farm System Rankings")
.jpg?w=600 "Offseason Moves for Every Team 👉")
.png?w=600 "New NBA Mock Draft 📝")
