Cincinnati Reds: A Look Inside Zack Cozart’s Hot Start

The Cincinnati Reds’ 2016 season has been hard to watch at times (and it’s not even June yet), but one of the pleasant surprises thus far has been Zack Cozart. He has picked up right where he left off after that horrific knee injury last June. Some fans are surprised by this, but is it really surprising that he is hitting this well?

Looking at his statistics over his entire career, Cozart has had only one terrible year. In 2014, he hit just .221. However, in his six years in the league, he averages about .250 with 14 home runs and 55 RBI. And in 2015, he started off strong before falling back to a reasonable .258/.310/.459 with nine home runs and 28 RBI. He was likely on track to be an NL All-Star reserve if he hadn’t gotten injured before the break. With his defense at shortstop, that’s not bad for a guy who would hit near the bottom of the order on a team with a decent leadoff hitter.

In 2016, Cozart has skyrocketed past that, hitting .340/.343/.567 with 10 doubles, four home runs and 12 RBI through 25 games. He’s walked only twice in 98 plate appearances, but he’s also struck out only 12 times thus far. In his shortened 2015 season, he struck out only 29 times in 214 plate appearances. This is much improved from his 2012 and 2013 seasons when he struck out over 100 times both seasons.

Cozart has never been a player who has walked a lot. In fact, in his career, only 4.6 percent of all his plate appearances have ended in a walk. Although he may not draw many walks, he is making more contact than in previous years. One reason Cozart is having more success this season might be that his BABIP is at .349, up from .258 a year ago and .278 for his career. Usually a player does not maintain a high BABIP, especially if his career normal is below what he is hitting, so it will be interesting to see what happens with Cozart once his BABIP regresses to the norm.

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Cozart is also getting more extra base hits than in past seasons. He’s already equaled the total of doubles he had from last season with 10, in almost 100 less plate appearances. This coincides with the fact that he is hitting more line drives than in previous years. In his career, 22 percent of all his plate appearances end in line drives. This season, 37 percent of his plate appearances have been line drives. Yes, it is a small sample size, given it is only May, but it could explain why Cozart is hitting more extra base hits than he has in the past.

Many fans will say that Cozart will go back to his 2014 season when he hit a career low in almost every statistical category, but what they fail to recognize is that 2014 could have been just a bad year. If Cozart can hit .260 over the course of 2016, the Reds will end up being pleased with his production and anything beyond that is just icing on the cake. For now, enjoy this new and improved Zack Cozart. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a fan of his since the beginning, but I know I am.