Earlier this week over at the Ringer, Ben Lindbergh wrote a fantastic article about the unprecedented improvement of Lorenzo Cain’s plate discipline. Much of the piece revolved around his large decrease in chase rate this year.
Cain’s chase rate last season was 31.7 percent, a full percentage point worse than the league average for non-pitchers. As of today, his chase-rate decrease relative to last season would be close to the largest in the pitch-tracking era (2008-18). The table below lists all year-to-year decreases of at least eight percentage points among hitters with a minimum of 300 plate appearances in both years.