The Reliever Paradox Why ERA Means Almost Nothing

Relief pitchers handle over 40% of all regular season innings and more than 51% in October. Yet, the primary stat used to evaluate them, ERA, explains less than 1/3 of 1% of their future performance. Why is the most vital position group in modern baseball evaluated using pure noise? Welcome to The Reliever Paradox. Data sources: Fangraphs: https://www.fangraphs.com/ Baseball Savant: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/ #mlb #baseball #baseballanalytics #sabermetrics #statcast #baseballstats #mlbanalysis #expectedstats #baseballdata #sports #hitter #hitting #batting #pitching #era #fip #bullpen #reliefpitcher