Cincinnati Reds: Zack Cozart's Big Week Puts Him in Elite Company
The Cincinnati Reds started the season off in fine fashion, at one point sitting four games above .500 at 19-15. Since then, the club has gone just 6-15 and currently resides in the cellar of the NL Central, where many thought they would be from the start. Still, there are some performances to keep an eye on in Cincinnati–particularly the start that Zack Cozart is off to.
Joey Votto is likely the one Cincinnati Reds player that most baseball fans can name. If you're a Giants fan you can also name Adam Duvall, since you're cursing the front office for giving up what would have been the team's first good left fielder since Barry Bonds. From there, it's likely slim pickings unless you're into fantasy baseball or an okay baseball blogger.
The name Zack Cozart certainly isn't the first name that will jump out to someone looking at a Reds lineup, but with the stats he's putting up in the first couple of months, perhaps it's time he should get some recognition.
Last week Cozart hit .304 with a .467 OBP, hit four dingers, drove home eight, and added 0.7 to his fWAR total. That WAR total now sits at 3.1 for the season and is behind just Mike Trout and Chris Sale in all of baseball. In other words, a perennial Cy Young contender and the best player in baseball. He also ranks fifth among all batters in wRC+ at 173 (73 percent better than league average) behind just Trout, Ryan Zimmermann, Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper.
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Last night Cozart continued his hot hitting at the plate with a 2-for-4 outing, bringing his average up to .348 on the season. Cozart has been knocking the snot out of most offerings this season, but has a slugging percentage of .700 or higher against cutters (.700), two-seamers (.760) and four-seamers (.794). One way to combat that may be to throw him more sliders, as he's batting just .130 against them, whiffs at them 11.33 percent of the time, and has his lowest slugging percentage against them at .304.
Along with his hot bat, Cozart brings above average defense to one of the most important positions on the diamond at shortstop. FanGraphs has him with a DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) of 3 so far this season, which ranks sixth among shortstops.
Cozart may start to fall back from his Troutian pace before long, as he's currently operating with a BABIP of .387, which also ranks in the top seven in baseball. At 31, it's hard to imagine that Cozart has made himself a building block for the Cincinnati Reds moving forward, which could mean that he'll become available at the trade deadline.
He'll be a free agent after this season, which means that the return on him may not be excellent, but he's still going to be of value to someone out there. One team to keep an eye on may be the Colorado Rockies, who are hoping to contend deep into the season, have a struggling shortstop in Trevor Story, and may not be willing to move a big package of prospects to improve.
If Cozart does end up getting moved, he sure picked a good time to start having a career year as he could go from a rebuilding club to a contender overnight.
