Adam Kolarek is a puzzle

Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY SportsAdam Kolarek has a chance to make the 2019 Rays as the final (or penultimate) man in a bullpen that’s expected to carry a heavy load. Last season, in 34.1 innings, he put up a 3.93 ERA with some very unusual peripherals:

A 13.5% strikeout rate (that’s low, not good)

A 3.6% walk rate (that’s also low, but in a good way)

A 59.1% ground ball rate (that’s high, also good)

No home runs allowed (that’s as low as you can go).

That gave him a sterling 2.58 FIP, and an iffy 4.02 xFIP, with more advanced ERA estimators falling in the middle (3.71 SIERA).

Brief major league performances aren’t everything, so you should probably also know that over the past two years Kolarek has…