Kipnis could have remained the 2015 version of himself for another 10 years and become an impossibly rich man. Instead, he made some changes.
His average launch angle was in the 11.0 degree area from 2014-16. In 2017-18, it rose to 17.1 and 17.0 degrees, respectively. He raised that launch angle, all right – his liner rate percentile ranks dropped to 41 and 55 in 2017-18. Why is that a huge deal? Well, hitters batted .653 AVG-.861 SLG on liners last season. Oh, and his pop up percentile ranks have leapt to 83 and 63 in 2017-18. And as you might have guessed, hitters don’t fare so well on those, hitting .013 AVG-.018 SLG. Not a very good trade-in.
Source: Tony Blengino, Forbes