Although he went 2-4 with a double and home run in Wednesday night’s victory over the Minnesota Twins, third baseman Todd Frazier has hardly been the player the White Sox thought they were getting when they traded for him this past offseason.

When the Sox got off to their hot start in April, Frazier was one of the catalysts that enabled the team to string together so many victories. His power, timely hitting and ability to field at the hot corner made the New Jersey native appear to be one of the best offseason acquisitions in all of baseball.

He’s currently tied for the MLB lead in home runs with 22, and is certainly a much better option at third base than Gordon Beckham or Conor Gillaspie. The Sox desperately needed an upgrade at the position, and all signs pointed toward Frazier being the elite third baseman they were looking for.

Yet, when you look at his numbers on the season outside of his home run total, you see a much different story. He has a less-than-impressive slash line of .202/.301/.457, and he has a lower WAR than the likes of Asdrubal Cabrera, Yunel Escobar and even Chase Headley.

In the 15 games preceding Wednesday night’s victory, Frazier was 7-53 with 2 HR, 7 BB, and a startling 25 K.

The eye test would tell you that despite his recent struggles at the plate, at least he’s been great defensively, right? Wrong. In fact, despite all of the highlight plays he made early in the season, many of Frazier’s defensive metrics are at an all time low.

In short, Frazier went from arguably the most consistent player on the roster to, at best, a power bat that strikes out too much and struggles in the field.

How did all of this happen? It’s not every day you see somebody as talented as Frazier fall to near-obscurity so fast, especially at a crucial point in the season that sees the White Sox continue to drop further out of the playoff hunt.

August Fagerstrom of FanGraphs took a look at Frazier’s struggles using advanced analytics, and there are quite a few figures that stand out.

Frazier has the lowest BABIP (batting average on balls in play) in the MLB, and there’s no close second. When Frazier’s making contact with the ball and it isn’t a home run, his batting average is .186. Yeah, that’s not very good.

Fagerstrom pointed out that this can be attributed to Frazier’s ridiculously high pop-up percentage, as he leads the league with 11.6% of his batted balls in play being popped up. Predictably, not a single one of these has gone for a hit, so repeatedly getting under the ball is one of his biggest issues at the plate.

Finally, Fagerstorm noted that Frazier has the second worst batting average on ground balls in all of baseball, with only Prince Fielder below him. That is not company you want your star third baseman to be in.

So the short answer to the question is that Frazier pops the ball up way too much, and pulls the ball to the left side almost every time he hits a ground ball. However, you could discuss Frazier’s struggles for hours on end, and you’d more than likely find even more factors that are bringing down his statistics.

Regardless, the White Sox need him to figure it out fast. With just three series remaining before the All-Star break (after the conclusion of the current three-game set against Minnesota), one of which being against the lowly Braves, this is more than likely the best chance the South Siders have to remain in contention.

And no matter what’s been wrong with his game, the White Sox need Frazier to return to his April form if they want any chance to make a playoff push.