J.B. Wendelken
27-Year-Old
2020 Stats
W-L
1-1
ERA
1.80
WHIP
1.12
K
31
SV
0
2021 Projections
2021 Fantasy Outlook
The A's have produced some of the top fantasy closers in recent seasons and it may now be Wendelken's time to shine in the ninth. He is not a flamethrower, but Wendelken sits 94-95 mph on average with his four-seamer, so he's no soft-tosser either. It was his slider -- which gets lumped in with his changeup on some sites -- that was next-level in 2020 as he allowed a silly .104 wOBA on the pitch, per Statcast (112 thrown). For his career, Wendelken has allowed 10 barrels among 235 batted-ball events, and he has posted an xBA below .190 in each of the past three seasons. He flipped the script and became more of a groundball pitcher last season, which is nice, although he had no homer issues to speak of anyway even when he was allowing more balls in the air. Oakland has its sights set high and brought in Trevor Rosenthal to be the successor to Liam Hendriks, so Wendelken will have to continue to prove himself in the middle innings. Read Past Outlooks
To be relied upon heavily again
Wendelken, who posted a 1.80 ERA and career-best 29.2 percent strikeout rate across 21 appearances last season, will be relied upon frequently again in 2021, Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
ANALYSIS
The right-hander logged the second-most innings in the Athletics bullpen behind former closer Liam Hendriks in 2020, and he led all Oakland relievers in batters faced while holding them to a minuscule .546 OPS. Wendelken also stranded 16 of the MLB-high 24 inherited runners he faced with the help of a slider that he deployed more frequently than ever and against which hitters managed just a .115 slugging percentage. "Going into this year, we have that much more faith in him, and he makes our bullpen a lot better when you bring in the type of guys we have here recently and still have a guy like J.B. that can kind of pitch those middle innings -- if someone's in the setup role, he can do that," manager Bob Melvin said. "He's got postseason experience now. He's a bona fide big leaguer now."
The right-hander logged the second-most innings in the Athletics bullpen behind former closer Liam Hendriks in 2020, and he led all Oakland relievers in batters faced while holding them to a minuscule .546 OPS. Wendelken also stranded 16 of the MLB-high 24 inherited runners he faced with the help of a slider that he deployed more frequently than ever and against which hitters managed just a .115 slugging percentage. "Going into this year, we have that much more faith in him, and he makes our bullpen a lot better when you bring in the type of guys we have here recently and still have a guy like J.B. that can kind of pitch those middle innings -- if someone's in the setup role, he can do that," manager Bob Melvin said. "He's got postseason experience now. He's a bona fide big leaguer now."
Pitching Stats
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2020
2019
2018
2020 MLB Game Log
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Minor League Game Log
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Pitching Appearances Breakdown
Average Pitch Count
21
Last 10 Games
20
Last 5 Games
24
How many pitches does J.B. Wendelken generally throw?
1-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
61-70
71-80
81-90
91-100
101-110
111-120
121+
What part of the game does J.B. Wendelken generally pitch?
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
Extra
% Games Reaching Innings Threshold
% Games By Number of Innings Pitched
Left/Right Pitching Splits
Since 2018
-17%
BAA vs LHP
2020
-10%
BAA vs RHP
| BAA | K | BB | H | HR | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Since 2018vs Left | .153 | 29 | 15 | 17 | 2 | |||
| Since 2018vs Right | .184 | 51 | 10 | 29 | 3 | |||
| 2020vs Left | .194 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 1 | |||
| 2020vs Right | .175 | 19 | 4 | 10 | 1 | |||
| 2019vs Left | .160 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 1 | |||
| 2019vs Right | .188 | 25 | 3 | 13 | 1 | |||
| 2018vs Left | .080 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |||
| 2018vs Right | .188 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 1 | |||
| More Splits→ | View More Split Stats | |||||||
Home/Away Pitching Splits
Since 2018
-65%
ERA at Home
2020
-50%
ERA at Home
| ERA | WHIP | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Since 2018Home | 1.21 | 0.86 | 37.1 | 8.4 | 2.2 | ||||
| Since 2018Away | 3.41 | 1.05 | 37.0 | 10.7 | 3.9 | ||||
| 2020Home | 1.26 | 1.05 | 14.1 | 9.4 | 2.5 | ||||
| 2020Away | 2.53 | 1.22 | 10.2 | 13.5 | 5.9 | ||||
| 2019Home | 1.72 | 0.70 | 15.2 | 8.6 | 1.7 | ||||
| 2019Away | 5.29 | 1.12 | 17.0 | 10.1 | 3.2 | ||||
| 2018Home | 0.00 | 0.82 | 7.1 | 6.1 | 2.5 | ||||
| 2018Away | 0.96 | 0.75 | 9.1 | 8.7 | 2.9 | ||||
| More Splits→ | View More Split Stats | ||||||||
Stat Review
How does J.B. Wendelken compare to other relievers?
This section compares his stats with all relief pitcher seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 30 innings)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.
* Exit Velocity, Barrels/BBE %, Balls Hit 95+ MPH %, and Spin Rate are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 30 IP). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
* Exit Velocity, Barrels/BBE %, Balls Hit 95+ MPH %, and Spin Rate are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 30 IP). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
K/BB
2.82K/9
11.2BB/9
4.0HR/9
0.7Fastball
94.5 mphERA
1.80WHIP
1.12BABIP
.275GB/FB
1.32Left On Base
79.4%Exit Velocity
78.5 mphBarrels/BBE
3.4%Spin Rate
2396 rpmBalls Hit 95+ MPH
20.2%Swinging Strike
11.2%Advanced Pitching Stats
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Defensive Stats
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Stats Vs Today's Lineup
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More Fantasy News
Returns from injured list
Wendelken was activated from the injured list Tuesday and will be a part of Oakland's wild-card roster, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com reports.
ANALYSIS
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Likely to join postseason roster
The Athletics are expected to activate Wendelken (undisclosed) from the 10-day injured list ahead of Tuesday's postseason opener versus the White Sox, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
ANALYSIS
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Lands on injured list
Wendelken (undisclosed) was placed on the injured list Thursday.
ANALYSIS
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Strikes out side in loss
Wendelken struck out the side in a perfect eighth inning during a loss to the Rangers on Sunday.
ANALYSIS
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Takes loss in Game 2
Wendelken (1-1) allowed an unearned run on a hit and a walk while striking out two over two innings in a loss to the Astros in Game 2 of Tuesday's doubleheader.
ANALYSIS
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