Jose Abreu’s Rookie of the Year season kicked into high gear last July, when he posted a .374/.432/.667 slash line along with six homers, 19 RBI and 10 walks.
This July, though, when the White Sox have needed their star slugger the most, Abreu’s numbers are downright pedestrian.
Abreu is hitting .246 this month with one homer and five RBIs. He’s walked only twice.
The sore legs and right index finger injuries would be a logical culprit, but Abreu recently said he feels just fine from a physical standpoint.
‘‘I’m fine right now,’’ he said. ‘‘Physically, I feel good. The [All-Star] break helped me to recuperate and take a little break. I spent time with my family, and that’s also important for me. It was good to have those four days off.’’
But, clearly, something is wrong, and these charts from brooksbaseball.net tell some of the story.
Abreu has hit just four line drives in his 61 at-bats this month (click to enlarge):
Now how does that compare to June? It’s not even close.
Abreu was driving the ball to all parts of the field last month. He hasn’t been able to do that during this prolonged slump.
The possibility of his bruised body being the root cause comes up again when you consider we haven’t seen Abreu endure a slump like this since May 2014, when he went on the disabled list with posterior tibial tendinitis. Abreu hit .241 in 15 games that month.