So far this year, I’ve listed the best players in baseball and those who are most underrated.
The logical next step is to identify which players are given excessive praise relative to their actual value, starting with pitchers.
The following hurlers, while talented, are not quite as brilliant as you’ve been led to believe.
Trevor Bauer
Bauer fancies himself an ace, but does he really deserve to be considered an upper-echelon arm?
Even when you factor in his recent Cy Young win, Bauer’s career has been largely mediocre. Prior to 2020, he had produced just one season with an ERA below four, and just one season with at least 200 innings.
His initial go-round with the Reds was also outright terrible; after landing in Cincinnati at the 2019 trade deadline, he pitched to a 6.39 ERA and 4.85 FIP over his final 10 appearances. That’s a small sample size, to be sure, but 11 starts against awful teams in a pandemic-altered season is hardly more convincing. Bauer is known for embracing technology and “designing” his pitches, so perhaps his Cy Young campaign was indicative of a major breakthrough. Until he posts similar numbers over a full season, his recent performance should be met with skepticism.
Tyler Glasnow
Watching Glasnow excel on the postseason stage, you’d never guess that his career to date has mostly been so-so.
Glasnow has textbook mechanics, from a lengthy stride to a high release point that allows his curveball to tumble from the heavens above. In 2019, he was poised to be a Cy Young finalist until an arm injury abruptly cut his season short. His 4.43 career ERA over five seasons is subpar for someone with such overpowering stuff.
The best way to describe Glasnow’s pitching arsenal is “incomplete.” His fastball and curveball are elite pitches, but he has nothing else to complement them. This makes him predictable after the first time through the order, and prevents him from going deeper into starts. Though Glasnow’s upside is immense, health issues and a limited repertoire earn him a spot on this countdown.
Aroldis Chapman
Chapman’s inclusion on this list has less to do with his regular season performance than with his postseason shortcomings.
Even great closers blow saves in big moments: Dennis Eckersley gave up Kirk Gibson’s legendary homer in the ‘88 World Series (and coined the term “walk-off” as a result), Goose Gossage was torched by George Brett in the 1980 ALCS, and Mariano Rivera was responsible for critical Yankee losses in the 2001 World Series and 2004 ALCS.
One major blown save can be forgiven, and two is understandable. But when a pitcher such as Aroldis Chapman surrenders three back-breaking postseason home runs in a five-year span, it begins to damage his legacy. Since 2016, Chapman has served up a game-tying homer to Rajai Davis in the World Series and game-winning homers to José Altuve and Mike Brosseau in the 2019 ALCS and 2020 ALDS, respectively.
Chapman is still racking up historic strikeout numbers and breaking radar guns across the league. But he needs to close out a World Series championship before anyone in the Bronx even mentions his name in the same breath as Mariano Rivera.
Searle’s Final Say
Pitchers today are better than ever, as evidenced by increasing velocities and strikeout rates throughout the league. Sometimes, however, we are so awed by their raw stuff that we neglect to properly assess their actual performance. Bauer, Glasnow, and Chapman are headline grabbers and social media favorites…but that doesn’t mean we should overlook the deficiencies in their respective skill sets.
