Is it time to worry about Jose Abreu?

Some may say this is way too premature. Some may point to statistics showing that Abreu tends to get off to cold starts. However, you should first read this thread by Dan Szymborkski (creator of ZiPS).

Some things to note:

1. His hard hit rate has never been this bad, for just about any month of his career.
2. He is chasing way more out of the zone than he has in prior years.
3. As a result, his walk rate is currently at an abysmal 4.2%, his strikeout rate has jumped to 25%, and his xSLG is .301.

Plate discipline, contact numbers, and walk rates are much less volatile than other statistics (they tend to be early predictors after a fewer amount of PAs), so I think this is definitely cause for concern. Abreu is currently at 71 PAs.

Do I think Abreu will be this bad for the rest of the season? Definitely not. However, I think he seriously might be showing signs of aging, and we might be in for a couple seasons of mediocre run production at 1B as opposed to the excellence he showed in Chicago. His swing decisions are worse, and his ability to make solid contact is suffering. Behind him, we have Hensley as our primary 1B option.