More and more MLB teams are putting one of their best hitters in the number two spot in the batting order.
Before their three-year stretch of MLB postseason play from 2013 to 2015, the last time the Pittsburgh Pirates were relevant was from 1990 to 1992. Those teams also went to the playoff three years in a row and also failed to make it to the World Series, although they got much closer to losing in the NLCS all three years.
Barry Bonds was the star of those teams, with Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla joining him in the middle-of-the-order before Bonilla signed a free agent contract with the Mets that will pay him seemingly until the end of time. Another player on those Pirates teams was shortstop Jay Bell.
Jay Bell was the prototypical number two hitter in 1990. If you’re old enough to have seen the Pirates play back then, you may remember the sight of the leadoff man getting on base and Bell, batting second, bunting him over, repeatedly. Bell led the league that year with 39 sacrifice bunts.
That’s an incredible number of bunts. If you look at the single-season leaderboard, you find Bell tied with guys like Eddie Collins and Jake Daubert, who played in the 1910s and 1920s. Bells’ 39 sacrifice bunts that year are the second-most in the last 50 years. Only Bert Campaneris in 1977 had more. Bell would lead the league again the following season, with 30 sacrifice bunts.
The 1990 Pirates were a good-hitting team. By wRC+, they were the best-hitting team in the National League. Their regular lineup only had two players who were below-average hitters, Jose Lind and Jay Bell. Lind batted eighth, which is the perfect spot for your worst hitter, but Bell hit second because he could “handle the bat.” Meanwhile, the team’s best hitter, Barry Bonds, batted fifth.
Fast forward to the 2017 MLB season. The NL leader in sacrifice bunts was the Chicago Cubs’ Javy Baez, with six. He had the majority of his plate appearances in the eighth spot, followed by the seventh and sixth spots. Unlike the Pirates of the early 1990s, the player most often used in the number two hole by the Cubs last year was the team’s best hitter, Kris Bryant.
Having an excellent hitter bat second is becoming more common. Along with Bryant, other great hitters who had 300 or more plate appearances in the second spot in the batting order included Josh Donaldson, Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout, and Tommy Pham, all of whom slugged over .500 out of that place.
I wrote about the most and least productive teams at the leadoff spot recently. Today, it’s the most and least productive teams in the number two hole. Again, the metric used to determine best and worst is weighted runs created plus (wRC+), which adjusts for league and ballpark. A 100 wRC+ is league average. A 125 wRC+ means 25 percent better than league average. A 75 wRC+ means 25 percent worse than league average.