Kyle Hart Is Just the Latest Successful Padres Bullpen Project

[Yirsandy Rodríguez]

The depth of the San Diego Padres’ bullpen continues to make the team one of the toughest contenders to overcome in a playoff series, especially if it is a series of fewer than seven games. There's enough elite arms to handle high-leverage pressure and often cover for the lack of depth among the starting pitchers.

Behind the main names, left-hander Kyle Hart has emerged as another arm to keep an eye on. The southpaw has not allowed a run in 26 of his 40 relief appearances this year, has a 3.15 xERA and a 50.6 GB% rate.

His ability to generate ground balls frequently and limit left-handed hitters has been one of the most attractive trends in his profile. He currently ranks in the 95th percentile in HardHit%, the 90th in GB%, and his sinker ranks in the 89th percentile in run value. Hart has not allowed a home run since July 4, a streak that extends to 112 batters faced. He has held left-handed hitters to a .652 OPS and has not allowed a home run against right-handed hitters, who are producing just a .605 OPS.

Since the All-Star break, Hart’s adjustments have become much more noticeable in the Padres’ bullpen, which has the second-best xERA (1.77) in the league.

Name	SV	G	IP	K/9	HR/9	GB%	vFA (pi)	FIP	WAR
Bradgley Rodriguez	2	20	21	12.0	0.4	47.3%	98.3	1.62	0.7
Kyle Hart	0	14	17.2	10.7	0.0	56.5%	93.8	1.91	0.5
Randy Vásquez	0	4	13.1	6.1	0.0	54.3%	94.9	2.20	0.3
Mason Miller	7	17	17.2	16.3	1.0	43.3%	101.6	2.30	0.6
Adrian Morejon	1	20	24.2	11.7	0.4	47.4%	99.2	2.73	0.6
Yuki Matsui	0	18	21.1	10.6	0.4	40.5%	91.8	2.91	0.4
Wandy Peralta	0	16	18	5.5	1.5	43.1%	95.8	4.54	0.0
Griffin Canning	0	10	17.2	9.2	2.0	47.2%	94.9	5.02	-0.1

Hart has the second-best FIP in the group, mostly because his pitches continue to generate ground balls at a massive rate. In the middle of this process, one of his key adjustments was turning the sinker into the primary weapon in his arsenal. Since June, it has become the most-used pitch in his repertoire, replacing the sweeper. The results have been highly revealing, limiting the opposition to a .233 xSLG, the lowest among any left-handed reliever in the game.

Player	PA	xSLG	xwOBA	K%	Hard Hit%
Hader, Josh LHP	55	.265	.190	34.5%	40.0%
Hart, Kyle LHP	35	.223	.225	34.3%	20.0%
Miller, Erik LHP	48	.225	.247	22.9%	13.8%
Sommers, Drew LHP	42	.229	.250	21.4%	25.0%
Peralta, Wandy LHP	46	.324	.261	8.7%	37.5%
Mayza, Tim LHP	41	.346	.270	19.5%	48.4%
Bernardino, Brennan LHP	50	.354	.281	10.0%	35.7%
Ashby, Aaron LHP	66	.326	.284	16.7%	42.9%
Dodd, Dylan LHP	51	.386	.295	23.5%	45.5%
Garcia, Brandyn LHP	38	.389	.303	15.8%	41.4%
Morejon, Adrian LHP	63	.366	.319	14.3%	27.7%
Suter, Brent LHP	50	.378	.321	14.0%	23.7%
Hill, Tim LHP	74	.453	.342	4.1%	40.9%
Bruihl, Justin LHP	59	.353	.343	8.5%	35.6%
Alvarado, José LHP	60	.413	.376	10.0%	33.3%
Soto, Gregory LHP	40	.456	.393	2.5%	34.4%
Ferrer, José A. LHP	72	.537	.404	9.7%	43.1%
Young, Danny LHP	37	.548	.425	13.5%	68.0%
Moll, Sam LHP	39	.574	.456	10.3%	63.0%

Hart stands out in this group of qualified left-handed relievers with at least 35 plate appearances ending with a sinker since June. He is not only leading with the lowest xSLG, but also ranks second in all the other metrics, alongside dominant left-handers who have had a great year such as Josh Hader and Erik Miller.

Now, the point we should still keep an eye on is how Hart is responding in high-pressure situations. Combining his appearances with the tying run at the plate, the tying run on base and the tying run on deck, his .418 xSLG allowed is fairly similar to his .411 mark for the entire season, but his walk rate has jumped from 8.7% to 10.9%. His strikeout rate has similarly fallen from 23.2% to 13.0%.

This is a total of 12 plate appearances, which, while not a large sample and something that can change with a few more matchups, reflects what middle relievers often face: one- or two-batter situations and, in Hart’s case, some lefty-on-lefty matchups that can result in key moments of a game.

For his part, he has been reserved for those small moments of walking a tightrope. In 55% of his 40 relief appearances, he has faced five or fewer batters and, interestingly, in 55% of those 22 games, he has never gone beyond three hitters.

For the Padres, it is an absolute relief to know that behind Mason Miller, Adrian Morejón, Bradgley Rodríguez, Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta, they have Kyle Hart’s left arm. Though he may not be a high-leverage savant, the Friars already have enough of those. More importantly, he adds quality depth to a bullpen that is poised to be worked hard through the end of the regular season and into October.

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