Miles Mikolas 2020 Outlook: Decent Ratio, Low Strikeout SP5
4 years agoMiles Mikolas took a step backward in 2019 as he cut his win total in half to nine while seeing his ERA climb up over a full run to 4.16 and his WHIP slide to a 1.22 mark over his 184.0 innings of work. The right-hander had a small uptick in K-rate (18.9%), which still fell well below the league average of 22.3%, but he did impress with a top-four BB% (4.2%). Like most pitchers last season, the long ball got the best of him as he served up 11 more homers than in 2018 with 18 of his 27 coming off his slider and sinker. Mikolas only allowed five round-trippers off these deliveries the year previous as hitters especially attacked the slide piece to a .289 BA, a far cry from his .184 mark in 2018. The 31-year-old will likely open up the 2020 campaign as the Cardinals third starter and should return a double-digit win total after finishing third-worst in run support last year. His struggles with the slider are a concern, but he'll provide a decent WHIP total and an ERA in the mid-threes if he can keep the ball in the park. Mikolas can provide a valuable return at his 224.5 ADP, but understand that he won't contribute as much in the strikeout column.