Joel Kuhnel
2026Grade
Rarely walks anyone and lets the defense work.
Kuhnel is getting hit harder than most pitchers
The simulator expects 0.482 bases allowed per batter faced against him — better than 13th percentile of qualified pitchers. The soft spot is Strikeouts (6th percentile). Short relief stints inflate strikeout rates a touch, so read the Strikeouts spoke with that in mind.
157 batters faced · data through 2026-08-22.
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Plays like…
Same archetype, nearest by rate — pick one to see him side by side with Joel Kuhnel.
Pitcher type
Pitcher type
Where he sits among qualified pitchers on the two skills that separate styles.
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| Joel Kuhnel | League median | Percentile | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bases per ball in play(lower = better) | .557 | .528 | 13th |
| Walk rate(lower = better) | 8% | 9% | 67th |
| Strikeout rate(higher = better) | 18% | 22% | 6th |
100th percentile = best in MLB.
Arsenal
Joel Kuhnel leans on his sinker (52% of pitches). His sinker has performed closest to league average.
Pitch mix & swing-and-miss
allowed 78 bases vs a replacement arm's 81 over the same batters faced
Replacement level is per-batter and can't be split by pitch type, so the bars below use league average.
5.0 bases cost vs league average, across 469 pitches — 1.1 per 100.
Only his sinker and cutter are in the charts below — the rest were tracked too rarely to plot.
Rarely used: slider (1%)
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Mix by batter side
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Joel Kuhnel's pitch movement, 2026
His Cutter has moved 2+ inches from its early-season shape.
Compared with his own earlier outings this season, not with other pitchers — and after taking out the drift every pitch in the league shows through midsummer.
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By appearance
One point per outing — how his velocity, movement, and pitch mix have moved across the season, with league context for scale. Each pitch keeps the same color in every chart. Only his sinker and cutter are in these charts — the rest were tracked too rarely to plot.
Platoon splits
Platoon splits (EB/PA allowed)
Better vs RHB than vs LHB by 0.042 EB/PA allowed (modeled).
50% probable range: +0.034 to +0.051
vs LHB: shrunk estimate 0.488 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.465 to 0.507, based on 78 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.671 EB/PA. League median vs LHB: 0.454 EB/PA.
Raw vs LHB rate (0.671) is off this scale — small samples like this are exactly why the shrunk estimate (the dot) is the trustworthy number, not the raw one.
vs RHB: shrunk estimate 0.446 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.423 to 0.466, based on 79 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.366 EB/PA. League median vs RHB: 0.440 EB/PA.
Raw vs RHB rate (0.366) is off this scale — small samples like this are exactly why the shrunk estimate (the dot) is the trustworthy number, not the raw one.
About the typical split for a righty arm (median 0.040). He allows more than the league median against both sides.
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- Tap or hover any mark for its number, or tab to a row for all of them.
- His raw rate is the unshrunk number against that side — small samples make it noisy, which is why the model pulls his estimate toward a more trustworthy value.
- “Middle half of the league” is the 25th–75th percentile of all pitchers against that side.
- These are bases allowed, so lower is better. Weighted by how often he faces each side, the two splits average back to his modeled overall EB/PA allowed — not the xEB/PA headline at the top of the page, which folds in strikeouts and walks differently.
- Shrunk splits beat raw splits on held-out seasons, most decisively at low batters-faced counts (relievers especially), and converge with the raw numbers as exposure builds.
Contact allowed
Batters go to the pull side off him most often, and that's where the hardest contact comes from.
Pull and oppo are relative to each batter's stance, so this pools all the hitters he faced.
Batted balls allowed
Luck check
Escaped damage 2 times — crushed balls the simulator scores as near-certain hits that died in gloves behind him.
Burned 5 times — balls with a hit probability under 20% that found grass anyway.
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Earned vs. actual
Results have matched the contact quality — batters have been credited about what they earned off Joel Kuhnel.
over 117 balls in play · walks and strikeouts excluded on both sides
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ERA 4.84 · WHIP 1.47 · BABIP against 0.306 (Lg median 0.286)
Best games
Best games
His best outings this season by bases saved vs a replacement arm.
- vs PadresMay 23, 2026
7 BF · 2 K, 1 H
- Bases allowed
- 1.5
- Above replacement
- +2.1
- vs CubsJun 3, 2026
4 BF · 1 K
- Bases allowed
- 0.2
- Above replacement
- +1.9
- vs RangersApr 15, 2026
4 BF · 2 K
- Bases allowed
- 0.4
- Above replacement
- +1.7
- vs OriolesMay 8, 2026
3 BF · 0 K
- Bases allowed
- 0.1
- Above replacement
- +1.4
- vs RoyalsApr 29, 2026
7 BF · 0 K, 1 BB, 2 H
- Bases allowed
- 2.3
- Above replacement
- +1.3
Trends
Multi-season trends · Joel Kuhnel
HR allowed% up, BB% up vs his previous season
Actual rates — what happened on the field, season by season.