MLB

5 MLB Hitters Who Need to Avoid Another Slow Start

Matt Musico  —  @mmusico8 Mar 29th, 2017
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Alcides Escobar, SS, Kansas City Royals

As promised, here is the second Royals player on this list, and nobody had a worse start at the plate last season than shortstop Alcides Escobar.

While he's never been known for his offense -- Escobar has a career .645 OPS and 71 wRC+ -- he was just downright dreadful last April. He posted a .214/.250/.265 triple slash in 105 plate appearances at the top of KC's order, which led to a wRC+ of just 33 for the month.

Escobar also doesn't make a lot of hard contact -- his career hard-hit rate currently stands at 20.8% -- but it dropped down to 14.3% during last season's first month of play, which was the worst among this group. His 30.9% soft-hit rate was also one of the worst, with only Dee Gordon (33.9%) beating him out for that dubious honor.

After posting career highs in OPS (.694) and wRC+ (97) in 2014, he's followed with two consecutive subpar offensive campaigns. Entering a contract year in 2017, it'll be important to show some kind of aptitude with the bat prior to hitting the open market.

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