Diamondbacks 2023 Player Reviews: Kevin Ginkel

The reliever became a star setup man and a fan favorite in his breakout 2023 season with the D-backs.

This article is part of a series of player reviews for the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a surprising and marvelous year for the team as they won 84 games to make the postseason. They advanced to Game Five of the World Series before bowing out to the Texas Rangers. There are 54 players in all that had at least one at-bat or pitched at least one inning for the team this past season. They are being presented in reverse order of their aWAR (average WAR-Wins Above Replacement) produced, which is the average of Baseball Reference and Fangraphs WAR. These are their season stories.

Kevin Ginkel had a standout 2023 season that helped the D-backs make the postseason for the first time since 2017 / Jake Oliver

Entering Spring Training, Kevin Ginkel was forced to compete for a spot in the Opening Day bullpen. Little did anyone know that he was about to become the team's best reliever in short order. Although, Ginkel did encounter a few speed bumps, mostly at the beginning of the season. In his second appearance of the season, he gave up three runs in an inning to the Dodgers. That would be the last time he gave up three earned runs until September 25th. In April in what was mostly middle-relief or mop-up work, Ginkel worked to a 3.65 ERA in 12.1 innings. He walked five while striking out 10. It seemed that he was still working on how to best locate his slider to go along with his high-velocity fastball.

However, from May onward, he was nearly unhittable. From May 1st to June 12th, Ginkel pitched 17 innings in only 12 games, serving as a valuable multi-inning weapon for Manager Torey Lovullo's bullpen. In this span, he pitched to a 2.12 ERA and 2.84 FIP with four walks to 16 strikeouts. That's what made it so inexplicable and confusing that he was optioned to Triple-A on June 12th to make room for Joe Mantiply's return from the injured list.

He didn't stay long with the Reno Aces as he was back on the active roster on June 27th. From June 27th to the end of July, Ginkel became the most trusted reliever on the roster. This stemmed partially from Pitching Coach Brent Strom pounding the table for Ginkel to be used as the team's closer. Eventually, Ginkel became the closer and went 3-3 in save opportunities over this time. He pitched to a near-perfect 0.75 ERA with a 2.26 FIP and only four hits given up in 12 innings and 12 games. In six of those games, he finished as he recorded 12 strikeouts to only four walks. Opponents hit .108 off him. The Ginkel breakout was fully happening.

After the Diamondbacks acquired Paul Sewald at the Trade Deadline, Ginkel became the team's best multi-inning late-game bullpen arm since Archie Bradley in 2017. As the team pushed for the playoffs, Ginkel's intensity and fiery passion on the mound quickly made him a fan favorite, similar to Bradley in '17. This was also because Ginkel remained nearly flawless on the mound.

From August 1st to September 24th, Ginkel pitched to a 2.01 ERA and 2.36 FIP with opponents hitting just .145 against him in 21 games and 22.1 innings. The 8th-inning arm went 4-0 with a save and seven holds. He struck out 30 batters against eight walks and 11 hits. On September 25th, Ginkel struggled with his location and gave up three runs to the Yankees in just 0.2 innings. This inflated his ERA from 2.12 to 2.52, but it didn't affect his spectacular run of pitching. He finished his season with a 1-2-3 inning on September 29th against the Astros.

It was a true breakout season as Ginkel nearly doubled his previous career high in games pitched. He pitched over twice as many innings in 2023 than his previous high of 29.1 in 2022. Ginkel allowed just three home runs and 23 walks limiting the damage and runners that could reach base. He combined that with a strong 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings and a career-low 5.6 hits per nine innings. Nearly all of his stats were career-best or second in his career.

In the postseason, Ginkel continued to be a star reliever and one of the best to pitch in the entire postseason field. In the NLWCS and NLDS, Ginkled pitched 4.1 innings in four games with four holds and two walks to eight strikeouts. He had a 0.00 ERA and a marvelous 0.95 FIP. He was even better in the NLCS and World Series with 7.1 innings and six games of shutout baseball. He allowed only four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts. As many other media outlets reported, Ginkel was one of the Diamondbacks' most important players and a true x-factor in their surprising playoff run. Kevin Ginkel was one of the most important players for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023 serving as a catalyst and motivator for the bullpen and crowd and performing excellently when the pitches mattered most.

Diving Deeper into the Statistics

Ginkel's underlying statistics back up his baseline stats for 2023. He had a 2.48 ERA while his xERA was still strong at 3.14. His FIP was 2.86 with a good 3.60 xFIP. This would indicate that Ginkel wasn't lucky or unlucky and that he was just plain good. He was excellent at getting the ground ball with a 50.3% ground ball rate which ranked above average.

Ginkel wasn't lucky with runners on base as he stranded runners at a 68% clip. This falls right in line with his career average of 68.1%. Ginkel struck out hitters at an above-average rate of 27.6%, 3.4% higher than his previous career high of 24.2% in 2022. He walked hitters at around an MLB-average rate of 9.1%. Despite giving up the second-most barrels % of his career at 7.5%, he limited that thanks to an off-setting below-average launch angle.

In 2023, Ginkel threw only two pitches. One was a fastball that averaged 95.6 mph. That was thrown 57% of the time. His slider was thrown 43% of the time and averaged a career-high 86.7 mph. This meant that Ginkel abandoned his changeup from prior seasons.

Ginkel was dominant regardless of where he pitched. At home, he allowed only a .177 batting average and had 35 strikeouts to nine walks in 32 games. On the road, over 28 games, batters hit just .187 with 14 walks to 35 strikeouts.

2024 Status and Outlook:

Kevin Ginkel is entering his age-30 season in 2024. He is in the middle of his playing prime as a pitcher. With no recent injuries and a healthy offseason, Ginkel is expected to return as a key late-inning reliever for the Diamondbacks. He, Ryan Thompson, and Paul Sewald will partner together to be the team's top three relievers. This is his first off-season in which he is arbitration-eligible. He has over three years of service time. He is expected to get around $1.4 MM according to MLB Trade Rumors. Ginkel isn't set to reach free agency until after the 2026 season. This means that you can expect to see the passionate Ginkel on the mound for at least the next three seasons in a Diamondbacks uniform. The University of Arizona graduate will next be seen on a mound in February when pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training.

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