Angels Zack Cozart: The stud shortstop no one wants to draft
By Gavin Tramps
Reds’ former shortstop Zack Cozart made significant changes in his approach last season to produce like an elite shortstop, but is it sustainable?
Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zack Cozart hit 24 home runs with 24 doubles, 80 runs and 63 RBI as part of a .297/.385/.548 slash line, which represented career-highs in all of the elements except doubles.
Choose your favorite advanced metric (wRC+, WAR, wOBA), and Cozart was a top-3 shortstop.
On a points per game basis, the 32-year-old was only outscored by Trea Turner, Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor at the shortstop position. If he had played another 30-35 games, he would be discussed in the same conversation as Alex Bregman, Jean Segura, Elvis Andrus and Xander Bogaerts. Instead, he is languishing with an ADP of around 200 as the 19th shortstop off the board.
Despite playing fewer games, Cozart walked more than any of the elite shortstops; a new and encouraging addition to his game.
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The newly discovered patience at the plate is as a direct result of being more selective over which pitches to swing at.
He has always been a hitter with a 47-48% swing percentage, but that dropped last season to 40%. His overall contact rate improved, with the most noticeable jump being in his contact rate on pitches outside of the strike zone. He just doesn’t swing at bad pitches as much.
In the two seasons between 2012-13, Cozart walked a total of 57 times. Last season, he walked 62 times to just 78 strikeouts. Regardless of the slightly higher BABIP and HR/FB rates, the underlying gains are sustainable.
He will move to third base this season, adding additional position eligibility to his value, probably hitting sixth in the impressive Angels’ lineup. Any loss in production caused by moving from the Great American Ball Park will be mitigated by improvements in the offensive potential of the players on his new team.
Perhaps Cozart will join Justin Turner and Daniel Murphy as players waiting until reaching their 30s to produce their best seasons.
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Being more selective over which pitches to hit was not a skill that I expected Cozart to develop but I have more confidence of him repeating his production in 2018 than I have of Andrus or Bregman repeating their 2017. And Cozart is available 150 picks later.