Cincinnati Reds' Adam Duvall looks like the latest version of Kevin Maas
After a successful first full year in the majors, Cincinnati Reds’ left fielder isn’t looking to change his routine for year two.
Adam Duvall’s career MLB stats and his 2016 stats with the Cincinnati Reds don’t look that much different. He batted .241 with an OBP of .297 in 2016. For his career he has a .234 batting average and an OBP of .291.
While he was in the minors, Duvall batted .268 with a .338 OBP. Much of his minor league career, though, was spent in the offensive strong Pacific Coast League. In 2014 playing for Fresno, Duvall hit 27 home runs in 91 games.
After making the All-Star game and leading the Reds in home runs for the 2016 season, Duvall is OK with where he is in his career. He asked his girlfriend to marry him and he returned to the University of Louisville for off-season training.
During a series of interviews over the Redsfest weekend, Duvall repeatedly said that he improves in incremental steps. That is great, if his OBP hadn’t suddenly dropped from 2015 to 2016. His decline in performance is concerning to fans that want to see someone take over left field the way that Adam Dunn or even Greg Vaughn did in years past.
Adam Duvall’s career with the Cincinnati Reds is trending precariously close to that of Kevin Maas.
Kevin Maas was an even hotter asteroid than Adam Duvall. In 1990 Maas set the record for the quickest a player ever hit the first 15 home runs of his career. After a 1991 season in which Maas hit 23 home runs while batting .220, Maas became a roster after thought before bowing out of MLB in 1995.
That is the danger zone right now for Duvall. Duvall can hit the ball a country mile, but he is tracking in between Kevin Maas and former Milwaukee Brewer Chris Carter as far as his career projections go. In all fairness, he most resembles former Red Eduardo Perez with one substantial difference, playing time.
Perez was a back-up corner player much like Duvall. He had power and a decent batting average, but had an inconsistent OBP. He also had decent power.
The difference between Perez and Maas is that Perez was constantly changing himself. He went from a top prospect to a bench player and learned multiple new positions. Duvall has learned how to play left at an elite level, but seems stuck in a rut offensively.
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Maas had almost 1500 plate appearances over the course of his career. Duvall just broke 750 this year. If Duvall wants to be more like the 14-year vet Perez he needs to adapt more than just incrementally.
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