The simulator expects 0.476 bases allowed per batter faced against him — better than 20th percentile of qualified pitchers. The soft spot is HR Suppression (20th percentile). Short relief stints inflate strikeout rates a touch, so read the Strikeouts spoke with that in mind.
77 batters faced · data through 2026-09-11.
▸How to read this chart
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size (not raw season stats), so farther out = better. Spokes are the metric itself; ↓ marks a rate where a LOWER number is better. The middle ring marks the league median and the outer ring the league best. Percentiles vs. 494 qualified pitchers — 100+ batters faced, starters and relievers pooled. He hasn't reached that bar himself, so he is measured against them rather than counted among them.
Plays like…
Same archetype, nearest by rate — the pitchers whose profile looks most like this one.
Zak Kent mixes his four-seam fastball (41%) and slider (40%). His four-seam fastball has performed closest to league average.
Pitch mix & swing-and-miss
▼ −3 bases worse than a replacement arm this season
allowed 43 bases vs a replacement arm's 40 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.
Bases vs average
All pitches
5.5 bases cost vs league average, across 287 pitches — 1.9 per 100.
Lg avg
Four-Seam Fastball
41%
92.8 mph · RHP median 95.1
13% whiffs · Lg median 21%
eveneven
Slider
40%
87.5 mph · RHP median 86.9
29% whiffs · Lg median 33%
cost 4.5 per 1005.2 total
Curveball
18%
82.2 mph · RHP median 81.2
—
cost 0.5 per 1000.2 total
Rarely used: sinker, sweeper (2%)
▸How to read this chart
What they throw, how hard, and what misses bats — from pitch tracking, regular season only.
Mix by batter side
Four-Seam Fastball
40% vs LHH · RHP median 40%
41% vs RHH · RHP median 33%
Slider
36% vs LHH · RHP median 20%
43% vs RHH · RHP median 30%
▸How to read this chart
How the mix shifts against lefty and righty bats. Medians are among right-handed pitchers who throw that pitch at least 3% of the time — between 208 and 371 of them, depending on the pitch. Overall results by batter side are under Platoon splits.
Zak Kent's pitch movement, 2026
His Curveball has moved 2+ inches from its early-season shape; his other 2 have not.
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.
Pitch
Risein · vs Lg median
Breakin · vs Lg median
Vs. early season
Four-Seam FastballFF
Rise 11.5 in
−4.1 vs Lg median
Break −1.2 in
−8.9 vs Lg median
Vs. early season steady
SliderSL
Rise −0.9 in
−2.8 vs Lg median
Break −5.7 in
−2.0 vs Lg median
Vs. early season steady
CurveballCU
Rise −12.2 in
−1.6 vs Lg median
Break −5.7 in
+2.9 vs Lg median
Vs. early season changed
Early season → nowLg medianCurrent-dot uncertainty
▸How to read this chart
Each dot is a pitch's current shape — horizontal break (arm side vs. glove side) by induced vertical break (rise vs. drop). Both axes are in inches of break. The trail runs from this season's earliest tracked outings — the faint, thin end — up to today's solid dot; a trail with only a few segments just means fewer tracked outings. The soft halo around each dot is how far that dot could sit off on its own, just from ordinary outing-to-outing wobble. Don't read a long trail as proof on its own that a pitch changed. Every pitch in baseball loses a little break through midsummer and gets it back by September — the same shift two full seasons back agree on — and the trail shows that league-wide seasonal swing alongside whatever this pitcher did himself. The sentence at the top of this card has the league's share taken out, so it can read “has not moved” above a trail that looks long. That is the two marks measuring different things, not a mistake. A pitch counts as changed only once it sits at least two inches from its own early-season shape — a verdict about this pitcher against himself, never a comparison with anyone else. League median: the small hollow ring marks it, on the same two measurements. Where it sits far from a pitch's dot, a line joins the two — and on a wider screen the ring carries that pitch's code as well — so a distant ring is never orphaned; where it sits close, neither is drawn, because the pairing is already obvious. League median is missing entirely for a pitch marked *: too few pitchers throw it for one to be worth setting, so it is plotted without a reference ring. For the exact dates a pitch changed, see the by-appearance chart below.
By appearance
How the stuff has held up outing to outing
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.
Platoon splits
How he fares against lefties and righties
Platoon splits (EB/PA allowed)
Better vs RHB than vs LHB by 0.042 EB/PA allowed (modeled).
50% probable range: +0.034 to +0.050
vs LHB40 PA0.504
vs LHB: shrunk estimate 0.504 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.480 to 0.525, based on 40 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.496 EB/PA. League median vs LHB: 0.455 EB/PA.
Lg median
vs RHB38 PA0.462
vs RHB: shrunk estimate 0.462 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.438 to 0.484, based on 38 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.612 EB/PA. League median vs RHB: 0.438 EB/PA.
Lg median
Raw vs RHB rate (0.612) is off this scale — small samples like this are exactly why the shrunk estimate (the dot) is the trustworthy number, not the raw one.
0.4270.4540.4810.5080.536
← betterworse →
Below league medianAbove50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league
About the typical split for a righty arm (median 0.043). He allows more than the league median against both sides.
▸How to read this chart
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 simulator 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
What hitters do when they connect
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
Where every ball hit off Zak Kent landed this season.
Dot color is estimated bases (EB) — what the contact was worth, regardless of what the defense did with it. So a dark hollow ring in the outfield is a crushed ball his defense ran down. Tap or hover a dot or a row to link the two, and use the ▶ links to watch a play on Baseball Savant.
Earned vs. actual
Results have matched the contact quality — batters have been credited about what they earned off Zak Kent.
Earned off his contact allowed35
Actually credited to batters37
over 57 balls in play · walks and strikeouts excluded on both sides
▸How to read this chart
Every ball in play is worth the bases its exit velocity and direction usually earn. Comparing those earned bases with the bases batters were actually credited shows whether his results have been lucky, unlucky, or fair.
ERA 5.51 · WHIP 1.65 · BABIP against 0.296 (Lg median 0.287)
Best games
His biggest outings this year
Best games
His best outings this season by bases saved vs a replacement arm.
