Miles Mikolas is one of the most recent examples of Cardinals Devil Magic™ or, as Grant Brisbee once wrote, the kind of player the Cardinals invent out of sticks and sand. If you’re less into hyperbole, Mikolas is a player who the Cardinals acquired last season out of Japan who performed well better than expectations.
How much better was Mikolas? Our own Tyler Kinzy likened him to a Mike Leake style innings eater, and that’s exactly what the ZiPS projections suggested. ZiPS pegged Mikolas for an ERA and FIP around 4.