MLB.com unveiled its “All-Underrated Team” for 2019 on Sunday that featured the Rockies’ Kyle Freeland as the starting pitcher.
It’s a good start for Colorado’s ace to get more national publicity but I’ll take Freeland’s selection on MLB.com’s underrated team a step further. Despite Freeland’s fourth-place finish in the National League Cy Young Award voting in 2018 — and despite the fact his profile has risen sharply over the past year — the 25-year-old remains not just MLB’s most underrated starting pitcher, but also the most underrated player in the game.
Even with the understandable attention given to Nolan Arenado’s contract situation, Freeland is, plain and simple, the centerpiece of Colorado’s lofty World Series aspirations.