For all of the talk of “small ball” and lack of power, the Cleveland Guardians’ offense wasn’t terrible in 2022. They did rank 6th in the American League in runs scored at 4.31 and their team OPS of .699 ranked 7th and was just below the league average (701).
They were 6th in on base percentage, mostly because they ranked 4th in the AL in batting average at .254. They did rank 11th in slugging percentage and as we should all know by now they were second last in the Junior Circuit in home runs.
By now, even casual baseball fans know Cleveland is the hardest team in the major leagues to strike out. It’s funny that Andres Gimenez led the team in strikeouts with 112 and then Amed Rosario with 111. Third? That would be Franmil Reyes, who wasn’t on the team since the beginning of August.
We have talked about how we believe the Guardians need some pop before next season, and they could probably use a player who can fill in at 1B/OF/DH, preferably a right-handed hitter.
They could also use more walks. They were 11th in the AL in working bases on balls. And if you are going to preach contact, and we believe in that approach, then you would hope the hitters could be more selective at the dish.
Jose Ramirez led the team in walks with 69, a total that ranked ninth in the league. He was followed by Steven Kwan with 62 and then Myles Straw with 54. Remember that Ramirez got less and less patient as the year went on.
We would have to think Kwan will walk more with experience (and with umpires realizing he has a pretty good grasp of the zone), and Straw worked more in 2021 (67 times).
Hopefully, Gimenez can learn the strike zone better. He did have a .371 on base percentage, but that was more a product of being hit by a league high 25 pitches. He only drew 34 walks. As a comparison, Owen Miller worked 32 bases on balls.
Rosario doesn’t walk either, but he’s been around long enough to show he simply doesn’t have that skill set. His career high is just 31.
Josh Naylor’s walk percentage went up from 5.6% in ’21 to 7.6% in ’22, so perhaps he can improve that rate again.
Some of younger players have a track record of taking walks. Bo Naylor walked 82 times in the minor leagues last season. Will Brennan drew 50. Will Benson had a tough time because of sporadic playing time when he got to the bigs, but at AAA, he worked a team high 75 times.
And Tyler Freeman has a minor league on base percentage of .376.
Why more walks? If you don’t get a hit, but you walk, guess what? You don’t make an out. And you move the line along. Not to mention you make the opposing pitcher work more.
The contact approach would seem to go hand in hand with drawing more bases on balls.
So, having more power would certainly help, but getting more baserunners would help as well. We wouldn’t be surprised if this was something the Guardians’ front office took note of too.