San Diego Padres: The Ryan Schimpf Experience sent down to Triple-A
More than any other player in baseball, the San Diego Padres’ Ryan Schimpf has embraced the trend of hitting balls in the air
Statistically, Ryan Schimpf is a man of extremes. His name will not be found in the middle of the hitting leaderboards. To find Ryan Schimpf, you have to look near the top or near the bottom of each category. When it comes to hitting, he’s among the best in the game at some things and among the worst at others. In an 89-game sample with the San Diego Padres last year, it worked quite well for Schimpf. That strong hitting carried over to the first five weeks of this season, but a recent month-long slump got him a ticket back to the minor leagues.
Schimpf leads the Padres in home runs but has a .158 batting average and .284 on-base percentage. In need of a bullpen arm, the team recently sent Schimpf back down to Triple-A, where he’ll use his extreme approach to hit for the El Paso Chihuahuas. In 51 games for the Chihuahuas last season, Schimpf hit a ridiculous .355/.432/.729.
That big season for the Chihuahuas last year earned Schimpf a call-up in June. He struggled at first, but exploded in July for nine home runs and a .269/.387/.705 batting line that month. His performance earned him NL Rookie of the Month honors, which he spoke about here:
Schimpf’s early success last year was reminiscent of a rock band that toils in smaller venues for many years, then has a big hit. The many years of dedication to their music before the fame comes are ignored and they are named an “instant success” or an “overnight sensation.” Schimpf’s success last year came after seven years in the minor leagues. He was 28 years old when he made his major league debut. In a little more than half a season (89 games), Schimpf hit 20 home runs and had 51 RBI, with a .217/.336/.533 batting line. He was 29 percent better than the average hitter when league and ballpark effects were taken into account (129 wRC+).
This year, Schimpf’s wRC+ is 90, making him 10 percent worse than league average as a hitter. With a mediocre glove at third base, Schimpf needs to hit to have value. And, in certain respects, Schimpf can really hit. He ranks quite high in some hitting categories, right there with the best hitters in baseball. Among the 172 players who have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, this is where Ryan Schimpf ranks:
- 14 home runs (T-23rd of 172 players)—tied with Nolan Arenado and Kris Bryant
- .267 isolated slugging (23rd of 172 players)—right behind Khris Davis and Kris Bryant
- 7% walk rate (22nd of 172 players)—just ahead of Miguel Cabrera
Over the last couple years, more and more hitters have talked about lifting the ball. Players such as Josh Donaldson, Jay Bruce and Yonder Alonso want to hit the ball hard and get it in the air. It’s the opposite of what many of us were told by our coaches in Little League. “Get on top of the ball.” “Swing down on the ball.” “Keep the ball on the ground.” Ryan Schimpf ignores such nonsense.
No qualifying hitter in baseball has hit the ball in the air more often than Ryan Schimpf. Almost 64 percent of his batted balls have been fly balls. When Schimpf hits the ball in the air, the result is a home run 22.6 percent of the time. That’s good for 31st in baseball, slightly lower than Kendrys Morales and a couple percentage points higher than Nelson Cruz.
Those are the things Ryan Schimpf is good at. He hits fly balls at the highest rate in baseball and rarely hits ground balls, which has led to 14 home runs and a strong isolated slugging percentage. He even walks at a healthy rate. When it’s working, he can be very productive, as he was in a game last summer when he was 4-for-5, with two home runs and five RBI. This is the yin of Ryan Schimpf.
The yang of Ryan Schimpf is what got him sent down to Triple-A. Among 172 qualifying hitters, he’s last in the league in batting average. Only five players have struck out more often than Schimpf and only five players have hit more infield fly balls, which are almost always easy outs. Schimpf has popped out 12 times this year. Shin-Soo Choo, Buster Posey, Corey Seager and Miguel Cabrera haven’t popped out at all this season.
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All of those fly balls, strikeouts and infield flies have contributed to a .145 Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP), which is by far the lowest in baseball. The next-lowest BABIP among qualifying hitters is .197, by Kyle Schwarber. The lowest recorded BABIP for a qualifying hitter in a season is .196, by Aaron Hill in 2010.
The approach Schimpf uses at the plate is not likely to ever yield a high BABIP, but .145 is ridiculously low. There is some bad luck mixed in there. He’s also coming off a very rough month. After a nice game on May 8, he was hitting .172/.319/.484 in his first 30 games of the season. I know it’s easy to look at that batting average and automatically think he’s terrible, but the .319 OBP is fine and the .484 SLG is good.
From May 8 to when he was sent down to Triple-A, Schimpf really struggled, hitting .139/.235/.347. He struck out 42 percent of the time and walked just 7 percent of the time. This could be just a slump, which most hitters go through, or it could be that pitchers have adjusted to him after roughly five months in the big leagues across two seasons.
Even after an ugly month, Schimpf still leads the Padres in home runs. His 90 wRC+ is tied for fourth among the nine hitters on the Padres with 100 or more plate appearances, so it’s not like he’s killing the team. He’s been about as good as most of the Padres’ regulars. Despite it all, he’s back in El Paso, playing for the Chiahuahuas.
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Ideally, Ryan Schimpf will get his timing back and re-join the Padres soon enough. He seems to have taken a popular idea – hitting the ball in the air – and taken it to its extreme. It’s intriguing to see someone commit to something so completely. This approach worked well for Schimpf’s first 120 games in the big leagues. From his debut last June to early May of this year, he hit .206/.332/.520 in 446 plate appearances for a 125 wRC+. Then this extreme approach stopped working. Hopefully, it will work again.