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The numbers
.258/.315/.474, 500 PA, 19 HR, 55 RBI, 15 SB, 6.8 BB%, 29.4 K%, 2.7 fWAR
The good
Well, pretty much everything was better for Kingery. Better at bats, better power, better speed, better eye, better defense. Everything, it felt like, took a turn for the positive for the young player and it was a good thing too. He was clearly overmatched in 2018, but due to the stubbornness of the team in refusing to send him down to get a little more seasoning, he had to press on. It isn’t really hyperbole that Kingery was the worst regular player that year. 2019 saw him turn the page to a purely average player and turn into something you didn’t really have to look away from when at bat.
The bad
Boy, Kingery really likes to strike out a lot doesn’t he?
Meghan Montemurro put it best in her look at the team’s lineup for 2020:
Among the 137 hitters who logged at least 500 plate appearances last season, Kingery’s 29.4 percent K% ranked fifth-highest and was worse than his 2018 mark.
It’s actually pretty impressive that Kingery got better as a hitter considering he was striking out in almost a third of his at bats. Given where he was the year before, when the nickname Scott “0 and 2” Kingery almost felt appropriate, it’s a improvement. But considering the type of prospect he was, you’d like to see a better bit of plate discipline during plate appearances.
The future
You’d have thought that with the team non-tendering Cesar Hernandez that they would have just handed the keys of the keystone over the Kingery for the next 8-10 years. It’s possible that it still might happen, but with the signing of Didi Gregorius as the regular shortstop, it looks like Jean Segura will be moving there. If so, Kingery seems bound for third base, at least until Alec Bohm is ready, when he’ll then probably head to center field. Good thing he’s adaptable. It’s nice that he can play all over, but even he said he’d like to stick in one spot. Perhaps the regular time at one position, coupled with the hopeful alleviation of blurry vision that plagued him, will let Kingery improve even more.