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What might make this uptick different is the underlying batted-ball quality. Profar set career highs in all the Statcast categories, with peaks in barrels, barrel rate, and average exit velocity. His actual and batted-ball expected wOBA were identical. He did all this while sustaining some of the best plate discipline in the game, with a 15% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate. I admittedly spent the year waiting for the bottom to fall out, and while there was some loss in the second half, it was entirely BABIP-driven; the skill changes held.
