Javy Báez Generating Much More Contact Despite Middling Results

Javy Báez’s offense has been league average over the last month (99 wRC+), causing many to worry about what’s wrong with him. But in an unexpected twist, he’s actually making noticeably more contact during that stretch.

Javy’s contact in his last 103 plate appearances is up to 76.8%, nearly 12 percentage points higher than his prior rate and half a point above the MLB average. That’s right: Javy has been making more contact over the last month than most MLB hitters, which hasn’t typically been true of his game.

That obviously hasn’t translated to better run production, though, as he has batted .268 with four homers, a .237 ISO, and a .327 wOBA. What’s more, his expected wOBA — or what his batted-ball profile says he should be doing — has only been .297 in the same sample.

Maybe Javy is in the progress of making an adjustment that is yielding more contact, or maybe he’s being more intentional about getting his bat on more balls. It hasn’t yielded anything in the way of improved results yet, but just imagine if his increased overall contact becomes increased hard contact.

It could just be a matter of when — not if — Javy breaks out in a big way down the stretch.

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