MLB: The five best, worst teams at the number two spot in 2017
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.
MLB: Best Production from the Number Two Spot
- Miami Marlins (147 wRC+)—Giancarlo Stanton (67% of team PA)
Traditionally, the best hitter in a team’s lineup bats third. That’s where Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Willie Mays usually hit. Before last season, it was also the spot that Giancarlo Stanton hit most often in his career. The previous MLB season, though, he hit second in 71 percent of his plate appearances and launched 47 of his 59 homers from the two hole. Now that he’s been traded to the Yankees, it’s likely that Stanton will be moved back to the number three spot, with fellow slugger Aaron Judge batting second.
- Los Angeles Angels (138 wRC+)—Kole Calhoun (45% of team PA)
Calhoun led the Angels in plate appearances out of the number two spot, but his 102 wRC+ was barely above league average. It was Mike Trout and his 176 wRC+ in 321 plate appearances as the number two hitter that put the Angels second on this list. Calhoun had seven more plate appearances out of this spot than Trout, but Trout out-produced him in every way possible. The best player on the planet should be back hitting second this year.
- Milwaukee Brewers (137 wRC+)—Eric Thames (54% of team PA)
Thames had most of the plate appearances in the second spot for the Brewers and was quite productive, hitting .259/.376/.563 (139 wRC+). Domingo Santana had fewer plate appearances hitting second, but was even more productive than Thames (.318/.438/.570, 162 wRC+). Now that the Brewers have traded for Christian Yelich and added Lorenzo Cain through free agency, it looks like the team will have to find playing time for Santana. They aren’t likely to bench Ryan Bruan and his $20 million contract. Also, as good as Thames was hitting second last year, it looks like he may be moving down the lineup this year. Roster Resources has the Brewers going with Yelich, Cain, and Shaw at the top of the order, with Braun fourth and Thames fifth.
- Houston Astros (136 wRC+)—Josh Reddick (35% of team PA)
The Astros were fourth or better in wRC+ in six of the first eight lineup spots. They had a very well-balanced and productive lineup. Josh Reddick had the most plate appearances on the team in the number two spot, but it was 197 plate appearances with a 195 wRC+ from Jose Altuve that helped the team finish in the top five here. Late in the summer last year, Alex Bregman started getting regular time in the two spot, and it looks like he’s expected to hit there again this season.
- Chicago Cubs (131 wRC+)—Kris Bryant (65% of team PA)
Bryant batting second is reminiscent of former Cub second baseman Ryne Sandberg, who won the MLB NL MVP Award in 1984 while batting second the entire season. It bucked tradition for Sandberg to hit in that spot 34 years, but it was a good move. Bryant in the two spot is also a good move. Of course, if you think he isn’t a traditional number two hitter, wait until he ends up batting leadoff this year. At least, that’s the talk on Twitter. Bryant told the Chicago Tribune he would be happy to hit leadoff. “I’ll do it. I’d love to. I did it in college. My whole junior year (at the University of San Diego), I was leadoff.” We’ll have to see what Joe Maddon thinks of that idea.
MLB: Worst Production from the Number Two Spot
- Colorado Rockies (87 wRC+)—DJ LeMahieu (89% of team PA)
LeMahieu had what looks like a solid hitting season–.310/.374/.409 — but you have to remember that his home park is Coors Field. His batting line after adjusting for league and ballpark was six percent below league average. He took up most of the team’s plate appearances in the number two spot in the lineup, which is why they finished in the bottom five in the league in wRC+ from that spot. Still, the Rockies made the MLB playoffs last year, so expect DJ back in the number two spot again this year.
- San Diego Padres (87 wRC+)—Carlos Asuaje (37% of team PA)
The Padres’ 27th-place finish in wRC+ from the second spot in the lineup isn’t their worst ranking. Their number four hitters were 29th in baseball, and their number seven hitters were 30th. This was a team that finished 29th in baseball in wRC+, only ahead of the San Francisco Giants. Asuaje finished third on the team in OBP among hitters who had 50 or more plate appearances, so he wasn’t a wrong choice for the number two spot.
- New York Mets (86 wRC+)—Asdrubal Cabrera (48% of team PA)
The number two spot was the second least-productive of the top eight spots in the lineup for the Mets last year. Only the sixth slot was worse. Asdrubal Cabrera was the chief offender, with an 84 wRC+ in 352 plate appearances batting second, but Jose Reyes was less productive on a rate basis (67 wRC+ in 135 PA). The bad news for Mets fans is that both will be back with the team next year and Cabrera has slated for the number two hole again.
- Atlanta Braves (82 wRC+)—Brandon Phillips (56% of team PA)
After hitting .302/.361/.442 in a 38-game sample in 2016, young Dansby Swanson started last season batting second for the Braves. He hit .131/.159/.197 in his first 14 games and was dropped to eighth in the lineup. He would get more time in the number two spot later in the year, but Brandon Phillips got the bulk of the plate appearances there. The 36-year-old Phillips continued a five-year trend of being a below average hitter, thanks mainly to a below average on-base percentage. He was traded to the Angels in August, so he won’t be back to bring down the production in the number two spot for the Braves this year. It looks like Ozzie Albies will hit in front of Freddie Freeman in 2018.
- Chicago White Sox (81 wRC+)—Melky Cabrera (37% of team PA)
The least productive team in MLB out of the number two spot last year was the White Sox. Melky Cabrera had the most plate appearances out of the two hole, but he was actually above average (107 wRC+). It was the combination of Yolmer Sanchez (75 wRC+ in 96 PA), Tim Anderson (41 wRC+ in 81 PA) and Tyler Saladino (-8 wRC+ in 94 PA) that brought the team down to the depths of despair. The good news is that Yoan Moncada came up in July, took over the number two spot in mid-August and hit .265/.346/.471 down the stretch (120 wRC+). He should be back in that spot this season.
Next: The five best and worst teams at the leadoff spot in 2017
For most of the last 16 MLB seasons, the number two spot in the lineup has been the least productive of the top six spots. This started to change a few years ago, ultimately leading to last season’s MLB best wRC+ by number two hitters in the previous 16 years. Last year, the most productive spot was the number three hitter, followed by the number four hitter, with the number two hitter coming in third.