Time for me to acknowledge that Finnegan has been a pleasant surprise. Others might have seen this coming, and his 2024 2d half disappointed, but right now he's performing and mostly deserving his success.
This year, he's running a higher GB rate - 51.5%, over 50% for the first time since 2020. That compares to a league average for relievers of 42.6%. His barrel rate is below average -6.0%, vs reliever average of 8.1%. Roughly average hard hit rate, but more of it goes into the ground. His Ks continue to decline and are below average as he's 7.94 vs. 8.73 / 9. It's the first time he's below 8. maybe more important is his BB rate has dropped to below league average, too (3.18/9 vs. 3.66/9 for relievers) and his K/BB is slightly better than average. His BABIP is elevated, probably due to having the crew of doctor strangegloves behind him in the infield, but his WHIP is slightly better than average. He's managed to not give up a homer so far, but even the stats that normalize HR rate view him as above average.
Velo is down but still better than average, and the separation between his fastball and his split and slider is bigger than it's ever been. Throwing more in the strike zone, so his called and swinging strikes % is up even with a dip in his swinging strike percentage. That said, he's draws way below average chase out of the zone (Mlb average for relievers - 31.4%, Finnegan - 23.5%). His thing seems to be throwing a lot of strikes (58.4% vs. reliever average of 43.1%), giving up some contact into the ground, and getting more called strikes as hitters swing at a lower % of his strikes.
tl;dr - he's getting a lot of called strikes and ground balls as he fills the strike zone, and hasn't been punished by homers yet.
