Corey Kluber
The two-time Cy Young winner's career tells the story of elite dominance followed by painful decline. Kluber's peak from 2014-2018 with Cleveland was extraordinary — that 2017 season stands as one of the decade's best pitching performances, with his 2.25 ERA nearly two runs better than league average.
But injuries derailed everything after 2018. The man who once struck out 265 batters while walking just 52 became a shell of himself, posting a 5.07 ERA over his final four seasons. His career strikeout rate of 9.5 per nine innings doesn't capture how dominant he was when healthy.
Kluber's legacy rests on those Cleveland years when his signature cutter and devastating slider made him virtually unhittable. That 2017 Cy Young season, where he led the Indians to within one game of a World Series title, represents the peak of modern power pitching before his arm betrayed him.
Career · Pitching
13 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | CLE | 3 | 4.3 | 0 | 0 | 8.31 | 47 | 5 | 2.077 |
| 2012 | CLE | 12 | 63.0 | 2 | 5 | 5.14 | 78 | 54 | 1.492 |
| 2013 | CLE | 26 | 147.3 | 11 | 5 | 3.85 | 100 | 136 | 1.262 |
| 2014 | CLE | 34 | 235.7 | 18 | 9 | 2.44 | 153 | 269 | 1.095 |
| 2015 | CLE | 32 | 222.0 | 9 | 16 | 3.49 | 113 | 245 | 1.054 |
| 2016 | CLE | 32 | 215.0 | 18 | 9 | 3.14 | 133 | 227 | 1.056 |
| 2017 | CLE | 29 | 203.7 | 18 | 4 | 2.25 | 193 | 265 | 0.869 |
| 2018 | CLE | 33 | 215.0 | 20 | 7 | 2.89 | 143 | 222 | 0.991 |
| 2019 | CLE | 7 | 35.7 | 2 | 3 | 5.80 | 77 | 38 | 1.654 |
| 2020 | TEX | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — | 1 | 1.000 |
| 2021 | NYY | 16 | 80.0 | 5 | 3 | 3.83 | 111 | 82 | 1.338 |
| 2022 | TB | 31 | 164.0 | 10 | 10 | 4.34 | 91 | 139 | 1.213 |
| 2023 | BOS | 15 | 55.0 | 3 | 6 | 7.04 | 62 | 42 | 1.636 |
| Career | 271 | 1641.7 | 116 | 77 | — | — | 1725 | — | |
Each pitch type this pitcher throws regularly, placed by how the ball moves — sideways break across, rise or drop down the side. Each dotted ring holds about the middle 85% of the league’s pitches of that type, so a cluster sitting outside its ring is movement most pitchers don’t have.
The dots — a sample of this pitcher’s regular-season pitches, placed by movement: left–right is horizontal break, up–down is induced vertical break (what the pitch does beyond gravity). The view is handedness-neutral — positive break is toward the pitcher’s arm side for lefties and righties alike, so every sinker runs right and every sweeper breaks left, whoever throws it.
The dotted rings — about the middle 85% of where each pitch type lands league-wide (a 2-standard-deviation spread), measured from 7.5 million regular-season pitches since 2015. A cluster sitting well outside its ring is movement most of the league doesn’t get. Spring training and the postseason are excluded.
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.