I wrote about Kansas City Royals reliever Joakim Soria‘s struggles frequently last season. By September, I regularly questioned why Royals manager Ned Yost insisted using on him in close games. Kansas City fans soured on Soria last season, and dreaded his appearance in games.
However, none of us should just assume that Soria’s career as a top-shelf reliever is finished.
Soria posted an outstanding 2.99 ERA with a 9.3 K/9 in the three seasons before 2016. That performance was good for a 135 OPS+ (an adjusted OPS 35% better than league average).