Statcast tells story of Napoli’s memorable season

CLEVELAND — There is a piece of paper that has long been used by the Indians to determine how far a home run flew. It includes a rendering of Progressive Field from a bird’s-eye view with a series of lines marking distance points. When a ball lands in the seats, there is an estimated distance that corresponds to the spot.

It is time to toss the paper out the press box window, because Statcast™ not only calculates the projected home run distance, but the spin rate of the pitch, exit velocity of the baseball and launch angle. Really, that only scratches the surface of the data being compiled. The information available can, for example, show just how impressive Mike Napoli was last season, while also providing insight into why teams may be hesitant to hand him a multi-year contract.

The Indians are among the teams keeping in touch with Napoli, who is a free-agent again this offseason on the heels of a productive year with the Tribe. When it came to home runs, Napoli was Cleveland’s Statcast™ king. He dropped jaws all summer long with his prodigious power displays. Down the stretch, though, Napoli’s power went missing and he slumped over the season’s final six weeks.

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Cleveland is keeping the entirety of Napoli’s body of work in mind as it evaluates whether to keep him in the fold.

“Nap made a tremendous impact on the field and off the field,” Indians general manager Mike Chernoff said during the Winter Meetings last week. “Getting to see him first-hand, we know exactly who he is and have a sense of what we feel like he can contribute. So, I think you take the totality of his season. And then, we have to weigh the conditions of the market.”

Let’s start with the good that came from Napoli last year.

At 34 years old, Napoli established career highs in games played (150), at-bats (557), home runs (34) and RBIs (101). Behind the scenes, the first baseman emerged as a leader in the clubhouse. Off the field, the “Party at Napoli’s” movement was embraced by fans and raised a considerable amount of money for charity. When the Indians made the playoffs, it marked the eighth time in 10 years that Napoli played in the postseason.

And then there were all the fun Statcast™ facts.

Napoli’s average home run distance of 413 projected feet ranked fourth in the Majors among players with at least 25 shots, trailing only Trevor Story (422), Giancarlo Stanton (422) and Nelson …

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