Jharel Cotton has been bad. Part of his poor season is undoubtedly on the defense, and on a better team, his ERA might be palatable. His stuff still looks pretty solid at times but he’s just not quite right.
The good news: Cotton’s velocity is roughly the same as it was last year (keep in mind MLB’s change in tracking causes its readings to be a bit different) so he appears to be healthy. So what has gone wrong?
An overall lack of control and command
In his career, Cotton has always lived in the zone.