What makes Hyun-Jin Ryu so good?

The Blue Jays have themselves an ace.  By signing Hyun-Jin Ryu the Blue Jays are making a statement that they are ready to start contending with their young core of position players. Adding a pitcher like Ryu is substantial. He is fresh off a season where he led the league in ERA at 2.32 and finished second in the National League Cy Young voting. Since Ryu joined the Major Leagues in 2013 his 2.98 ERA ranks eighth among starting pitchers.

The risk with Ryu has always been health. He’s only pitched 740.1 innings in his career and only has four seasons where he has made at least 25 starts. The Blue Jays need Ryu to stay healthy as when he is healthy he is one of the best starting pitchers in baseball.

It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly makes Ryu so special. His change-up might be the most effective in the league. He keeps hitters off-balance by effectively mixing his pitches, you never know what’s coming in what count. His command is unbelievable; he can throw any of his six pitches for strikes at any point in an at bat.

 

Ryu’s pitch mix consists of a fastball, change-up, cutter, sinker, curve ball and the rare slider. He doesn’t lean on just one pitch. He throws his fastball and change just over a quarter of a time, the cutter just under 20% and the sinker and curve just a little over 10%. All his pitches work off each other and they tunnel very well.

What has piped my interest isn’t how Ryu commands the strike zone but how he commands outside the strike zone. Per Fangraphs, Ryu got batters to chase a pitch outside of the strike zone 36.7% of the time. That ranked him fifth in baseball. Batters made a decent amount of contact on those pitches 67.1% but the contact isn’t hard. Using Baseball Savant’s search feature Ryu had a .221 wOBA allowed on pitches outside of the zone and had an average exit velocity of 80.1 mph.

Ryu is one of the best in baseball at inducing soft contact. He induced soft contact 20.3% of the time which ranked 7th in baseball. The Blue Jays infield defence isn’t the strongest so being able to induce soft contact is a big plus for Ryu.

When Ryu gets ahead in the count he is virtually unhittable. He allowed just a .145 wOBA in those situations. His success stems from that elite command. He does a remarkable job at keeping the ball away from right-handed batters.

And just to keep you guessing he isn’t afraid to cross a batter up and throw a breaking ball high in the strike zone.

Throwing breaking balls up and out of the strike zone is not something unfamiliar to Ryu. Last season he threw his change and curve up and out of the zone 6.0%, which ranked 19th among pitchers who threw at least 500 pitches. Ryu generated 13 swinging strikes on those pitches which lead the majors.

For how much Ryu pitches outside of the zone, he only does so when he is ahead in the count. He hardly walks anyone. He had just 24 walks (3.3% walk rate) pulling off the rare feat of having fewer walks than starts.

It’s difficult to pinpoint just one thing that makes Hyun-Jin Ryu stand out. He has a wicked change-up and impeccable control. He doesn’t walk anyone and keeps hitters off-balance with his wide array of pitches. The only risk in this deal is health. If Ryu can stay healthy the Blue Jays will have a formidable top of the rotation with him and eventually Nate Pearson.