The Season That Was: Ross Stripling

We picked up Ross Stripling at the trade deadline 2020 from the Dodgers for Kendall Williams and Ryan Noda.

Stripling had worked as a swingman for the Dodgers for 5 seasons, making 59 starts and 84 relief appearances, putting up a 3.68 ERA. Not bad, not great.

Ross made 5 appearances for the Jays down the stretch, putting up a 6.32 ERA.

We didn’t know what to expect from him this year.

Baseball Reference had him at a 0.8 WAR. FanGraphs at a 0.2, making him worth 1.9 million to the Jays.

He gave up a .270 BABIP (down from .291 last year). 76.9% of his baserunners were left on base (up from 66.9 last year).

Ross had a 5.21 FIP and a 4.59 xFIP.

His line-drive rate was 19.9% (down from 24.1), ground ball rate 35.5% (down from 39.9) and fly-ball rate 44.5% (up from 36.1). 17.2% of his fly balls left the park (down from 22.8). He’d been a ground ball pitcher all his career but that changed.

Stripling’s strikeout rate was 21.8% (up from 18.2) and walk rate was 7.0% (down from 8.2).

His soft contact was down (12.8%, from 14.3), but hard contact was down too (32.1%, from 34.8).

Batters hit .260/.321/.466 against him with RISP.

Ross had reverse splits this year. RHB hit .270/.308/.520 against him. LHB .218/.299/.435. He’s had reverse splits his whole career.

He was better at home (4.12 ERA, batters hit .233/.287/.454) than on the road (5.74 ERA, .274/.328/.536).

You will likely remember that his first half (4.34 ERA, batters hit .240/.299/.460) than his second half (6.08, .278/.319/.565).

Stripling by month:

• April: 0-1, 7.56 ERA in 2 starts. Batters hit .342/.390/.632 in 8.1 innings.
• May: 1-2, 4.40 ERA in 6 games, 5 starts. Batters hit .248/.303/.477 in 28.2 innings.
• June: 2-1, 3.18 ERA in 5 starts. Batters hit .215/.267/.346 in 28.1 innings.
• July: 1-2, 6.30 ERA in 5 starts. Batters hit .250/.321/.618 in 20 innings.
• August: 1-0, 0.00 ERA in 2 starts. Batters hit .138/.194/.207 in 8 innings.
• September: 0-1, 10.13 ERA in 4 relief appearances. Batters hit .361/.385/.750 in 8 innings.

The Blue Jays were 10-9 in his starts. They averaged 4.58 runs in his starts. They scored 3 or fewer runs 6 times.

Ross started on:

• Four days rest 6 times: 4.23 ERA.
• Five days rest 9 times: 3.26 ERA.
• Six or more 4 times: 11.57 ERA.

Opponent batting line by time through the order:

• First:.283/.315/.585.
• Second: .179/.272/.321.
• Third: .333/.354/.578.

Stripling’s best start by GameScore was a 71, August 5th, hosting Cleveland at Rogers, He went 6 innings, allowed 3 hits, 0 earned, 1 walk with 6 strikeouts.

Worst start? A 17, July 19th, against the Red Sox in Buffalo. He got just 1 out, giving up 4 hits, 6 earned, 2 walks with 2 strikeouts.

The most pitches he threw in a start was 101. The least 28. He averaged 79.4 pitches per start.

He averaged 4.5 innings per start.

Ross missed a month of the season with an oblique strain. When he came back in September he was moved to the bullpen after being in the rotation until he went on the DL.

Ross is up for arbitration this winter. MLB Trade Rumors figures he’d be getting $4.4 million in arbitration. I guess there is a slight chance they could non-tender him. But with the constant need for pitching, I doubt they would.

He had a good run in his last 13 starts before hitting the injury list, put up a 3.39 ERA. If he can stay healthy next year, he could make a good fifth starter.