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Sean Doolittle 2019 Outlook: Stud Southpaw Could Sit Atop RP Ranks If Health Holds
6 years agoNationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle offers true RP1 upside for fantasy owners, but you have to accept his injury-riddled floor. Doolittle has flashed elite stuff often -- his 2014 season with a 15.5% swinging-strike rate, 37.7% strikeout rate and lowly 0.73 WHIP was a dream -- but hasn’t topped 52 innings since ‘14. That said, his skills blossomed in 2018’s hitting environment. The southpaw posted career-best marks in ERA (1.60), WHIP (0.60), swinging-strike rate (16.8%) and soft-contact rate (28.4%). Out of all relievers with at least 40 innings under their belt, only Doolittle, Edwin Diaz, and Josh Hader posted SIERAs below 2.00. That said, out of the same RP pool (>40 IP), his .196 BABIP was the lowest and is a strong regression candidate. How far it regresses is another question, one that this writer is optimistic about given the soft-contact profile and elite barrel-missing stuff. His injury risk is baked into our ranking him at 118th overall as the 10th RP off the board, but a reasonable chance at a top-five RP finish should he stay off of the disabled list throughout 2019 makes him worth considering once the draft picks hit triple digits.
