Changes in hard-hit percentage, fly ball rate and pull percentage have helped Atlanta Braves Kurt Suzuki become the best hitting catcher in baseball.
When the Atlanta Braves signed Kurt Suzuki prior to the 2017 season, baseball fans thought they knew everything they needed to know about Kurt Suzuki. He’d been around for a decade playing for three different teams and had more than 1200 major league games under his belt. He was who he was, a good-fielding catcher with a below-average bat.
Don’t take my word for it, though; take a look at the numbers. In his first 4622 plate appearances, Kurt Suzuki had a career batting line of .256/.311/.372. That gave him an 86 wRC+, meaning he was 14 percent below average as a hitter when league and ballpark effects were taken into account.
When the Atlanta Braves signed Kurt Suzuki, they had expectations, like we all do when we acquire something. The Atlanta Braves didn’t get what they expected to get. They got so much more. It’s like they ordered vanilla ice cream and were surprised with pecan praline. Their plain, glazed doughnut turned out to have a delicious creamy filling.
Since joining the Atlanta Braves, Kurt Suzuki has been the best-hitting catcher in baseball. No really, it’s true. His 132 wRC+ since the beginning of the 2017 season is the best in baseball for catchers with 350 or more plate appearances.
He’s hit better than Buster Posey (126 wRC+) and Gary Sanchez (124 wRC+) and another surprising name sandwiched between Posey and Sanchez—Mike Zunino (125 wRC+). Zunino has a good story of his own, but this is Suzuki’s time to shine so let’s stay focused on him. But, hey, good job Mike Zunino.
He made around $1.5 million last year and will make $3.5 million this year, so he’s already been worth about five times what he’ll cost for 2017-2018. It’s like the Atlanta Braves found a fresh-out-of-the-oven doughnut accidentally placed on the half-priced rack.
When a hitter has a stretch of unexpected good hitting, it can be informative to look at the underlying metrics, so let’s take a look at Kurt Suzuki. Some hitters get on a hot streak because balls start to fall in at a higher than normal rate. This is reflected in a high Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP).
For example, last year Avisail Garcia had a .392 BABIP. The year before that, his BABIP was .309. The year before that, it was .320. This year, it’s .286. That .392 BABIP was an outlier and helped Avisail Garcia hit .330, which is much higher than his .276 career mark.
So does Kurt Suzuki have an inflated BABIP since joining the Atlanta Braves? No, he does not. Not in the least. His career BABIP is .273. Last year, his BABIP was .268. This year, it’s .259. Nothing to see here, folks. Kurt Suzuki isn’t benefiting from extra balls falling in for hits.
Hitting the ball with authority for the Atlanta Braves
How about hard hit percentage? Is Kurt Suzuki hitting the ball harder since joining the Atlanta Braves? Yes, he is, very much so. His career hard hit percentage is just under 27 percent. In his first year with the Atlanta Braves last year, he had a hard hit percentage of 33 percent. This year, he’s been hitting the ball hard even more frequently, with a hard hit percentage just over 40 percent.
That’s one factor in the evolution of Kurt Suzuki. He spent 10 years hitting the ball hard about a one-fourth of the time. Now he’s hitting the ball hard more than one-third of the time.
How about another factor in the evolution of Kurt Suzuki? Let’s look at hit distribution. In his career, Kurt Suzuki has hit fly balls just under 40 percent of the time.
Since joining the Atlanta Braves, he’s hit fly balls almost 47 percent of the time. He’s hitting the ball harder, and he’s hitting it in the air. Bada bing. Bada boom.
One more thing. For most of his career, Kurt Suzuki pulled the ball around 42 percent of the time. That was slightly more often than league average, which was roughly 40 percent.
Since joining the Atlanta Braves, Suzuki has pulled the ball 50.7 percent of the time, which is fifth in baseball among catchers with 350 or more plate appearances. That’s factor number three.
Kurt Suzuki, at the ages of 33 and 34, has evolved into a different Kurt Suzuki than the one we thought we knew. He’s hit the ball harder more often than before, hit the ball in the air more often than before, and hit the ball to the pull side more often than before.
This is the new Kurt Suzuki. The old Kurt Suzuki wasn’t bad. He just wasn’t that exciting, like a plate of mashed potatoes but without the gravy. This new Kurt Suzuki is mashed potatoes, gravy, and a nice juicy steak.
