Miami Marlins: J.T. Realmuto is MLB’s Worst .300+ Hitter
By Will Summers
There were 25 players to hit .300 or higher in 2016. Miami Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto hardly made the cut.
J.T. Realmuto had a good year, his second full one with the Miami Marlins. Hitting .303 for a season is an accomplishment worth posting on every social media account you have. It doesn’t matter if you were bested by 20 other hitters. What happens with everyone, though, is we all want just a bit more. But will J.T. Realmuto make a push for more value?
No. To be blunt, he’s not this good. In fact, there are a lot of hitters who didn’t do what he did and are still more valuable than he. Let’s see how he stacks up against the others who managed the same statistical mark.
Keep in mind the number one goal of an offense is to score runs, meaning the 25 hitters who hit .300+ will be analyzed based on their overall offensive contribution. The best stat to employ in this situation is controversial, but here it’ll be Weighted Runs Created plus (wRC+).
The last thing anyone wants to do is be drowned in explanation and lose interest in the main point. To spare some time, FanGraphs will explain wRC+ and its place in the statistical side of the baseball world. All you need to read is the embedded image at the top of their page. That will give a sufficient understanding of the statistic, but go ahead and read all of it and teach yourself something cool while you’re here.
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The 2016 season was the first time Realmuto positively impacted the Marlins offense. With a 107 wRC+, J.T. Realmuto had the least offensive impact of the .300+ group; he ranked 21st of 25 with a .303 average. Although he was among the best in MLB in terms of batting average, he was only seven percent better than MLB’s average hitters.
In 2015, he hit a .259/.290/.406 slash line, setting him up for an 88 wRC+. Realmuto was 12 percent less productive than average in 2015. The Marlins backstop’s offensive value is hindered by his awful career walk rate at 4.6 percent.
Notice how Realmuto’s 2015 On Base Percentage (.290) is 31 points up from his average (.259). His offensive value lies in contact and moderate power, while his OBP is closely tied with how many hits he gets. In 2016, his OBP (.343) was slightly above league-average, but still just 40 points above his average (.303) due to a couple more walks. He had to hit for a higher average than 86 percent of qualified batters in order to reach a slightly above league-average OBP.
Where does he stand if you want to consider all around game? Realmuto just edges out Yunel Escobar (1.6 WAR) for second worst of the 25 .300+ hitters with a 1.8 FanGraphs WAR. This earns Realmuto the label of an average major league player in the scope of WAR. Realistically, they each bring about the same value, it just so happens the numbers worked out the way they did.
Going the other way, who was the most valuable offensive contributor last season? Shocker. Mike Trout topped the league in wRC+ at 171. What’s truly impressive is, according to the spirit of the statistic, Trout was eight percent more productive than the next most productive hitter, David Ortiz (163 wRC+). Trout was also 43 percent more productive than MLB Batting Champion DJ LeMahieu.
Another interesting situation is Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman‘s 2016 season. Though he “only” hit .302 (23rd of 25), he was 52 percent (152 wRC+) more productive than an average major league bat and more productive than 19 of the .300+ hitters, despite playing for a team ranking 29th in runs scored and 27th in OPS. Freeman was theoretically seven percent more productive than fellow first baseman and 2016 Silver Slugger Anthony Rizzo (145 wRC+), who played in one of the league’s better offenses.
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Remember, friends, don’t read too much into numbers. They’re fun to play around with. They also never do tell the entire story, however. Realmuto often hit sixth and seventh in the Miami Marlins order as a catcher, while Freeman often hit third. As a catcher, Realmuto’s offensive production last season was a tremendous value.