2. Paul DeJong’s strikeout rate skyrocketed.
In his latest campaign in 2022 it was evident that Pauly-D was just not making contact enough. Strikeouts, although present more than ever in today’s game, became the final straw for him. Here you can see how the contact type he was trying to provide also created more swing and miss with his Strikeout percent:
2018- 25.1%
2019- 22.4%
2020- 28.7%
2021- 25.6%
2022- 33.3%
Compounding his all or nothing swing and misses, he also was failing to reach base more as his walk rate declined from a peak in 2020 of 9.8% down to most recently this past 2022 season at 8.9%.