Is This the End of the Road for Dallas Keuchel?
Chicago White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel was coming off a four-inning outing against the New York Yankees on May 21 where he gave up six earned runs and got the loss.
Then, things got worse on Thursday against the Boston Red Sox as Keuchel was once again the losing pitcher, giving up six earned in just two innings of work.
That brought the left-hander's ERA on the year to 7.88, the final year of a 3-year, $55.5 million deal that Keuchel signed with the White Sox before the 2020 season.
The White Sox had enough of the lefty after he struggled in 2021, posting a 5.29 ERA and 5.23 FIP as before their Saturday night crosstown clash with the Chicago Cubs, they designated Keuchel for assignment.
Looking at his Baseball Savant page, Keuchel has had very similar advanced numbers over the past two seasons, with roughly the same barrel percentage (9 percent), exit velocity (88.3 MPH) and sweet spot percentage (35 percent).
Batters had an expected batting average of .302 in 2021 and so far in 2022, have a .280 xBA. Expected slugging was .493 last season and xSLG this year is .443.
Why throw out those numbers without context? Well, the context here is that the xBA and xSLG numbers are career-lows for Keuchel and his strikeout rate, once one of the best in the game, hovered around 12-13 percent between 2021 and 2022.
That's a roughly five percent decline since 2019, which is not a good sign for the lefty at all.
We're talking about a former Cy Young Award winner in Dallas Keuchel, who won it with the Houston Astros in 2015.
The bottoming out of Keuchel's career is one that most people probably didn't expect, especially one that happened as quickly as his did.
However, it most certainly begs the question about the future of Keuchel in Major League Baseball. He's only 34 years old, just two seasons removed from a fantastic 2020, where he was 6-2 with a 1.99 ERA.
His performance in 2021 and 2022 is rather concerning following what was a Cy Young-level season. That remains to be seen, but for now, Keuchel's career swings in the balance of whatever team decides to take a flier on him.
