Texas Rangers: Hunter Pence turns the clock back
Back in February, the Texas Rangers signed Hunter Pence to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. Little did they know, they got more than they were bargaining for.
When the Texas Rangers signed Hunter Pence, many people glossed it over since Pence is a 36-year-old corner outfielder past his prime. Safe to say, Pence was a far cry from when he was a fan favorite and one of the key players of the San Francisco Dynasty of the early 2010s.
Father time remains undefeated, however, as Pence hasn’t played in more than 134 games since 2014. For the Rangers, this represented a move with no downside as they brought in a well-respected veteran who had been an all-star in the past.
Well, folks, Hunter Pence woke up, turned the clock back to 2013 and has become an absolute wrecking ball. Pence is currently slashing .343/.416/.687 which equates to a ludicrous 182 wRC+.
Among all hitters in baseball with at least 70 plate appearances, that mark is good for 7th in baseball. Pence’s overall offensive production left much to be desired as he posted a not very good 86 wRC+ in 2017 and followed that up with a pitcher like 59. You can clearly see why Pence had to settle for a minor league deal despite his production before then.
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Hitters are constantly having to adjust their swings to both pitchers and natural physical decline as they age. Hunter Pence is no different, but he is doing some things the same as when he was in his prime and some things that are different.
Starting with the new trick, Pence has learned is to take a walk while also reducing his strikeouts. Currently, Pence is running a double-digit walk rate (11.7%) for the first time in his career. Even in an era of three true outcomes, Pence has also reduced his strikeout rate to 15.6% which is also the best mark of his career.
When Pence was winning all those World Series with the Giants in the early 2010s, he featured a pull-heavy approach, hitting a majority of his balls on the ground but still posting batting lines well above league average. For the next few years, Pence’s pull rate plummeted bottoming out at 29% while maintaining all those grounders meaning he had a lot of ABs ending with 4-3s. If you look at his batted ball profile this season, his 39%/34%/26% Pull/Cent/Oppo% looks identical to his 2012 numbers (39%/36%/24%) when he had the best season of his career.
Pence is still hitting grounders at the same 50% rate but he did now he is maximizing his contact he makes. Looking at Statcast, Pence has tattooed the ball with an average exit velocity of 93.0 MPH, which is 21st in all of baseball.
Looking at his expected batting average, slugging, and wOBA, Pence does even better ranking in the top 4% of the league, meaning his surface numbers are backed up by elite exit velocity.
Need more reasons to be excited about Pence?
He is still incredibly fast. Pence has been clocked at 28.4 feet/second which puts him in the 85th percentile. That speed makes him the same as George Springer and faster than a number of guys that are considered “speed guys” like Lorenzo Cain and Jarrod Dyson. The best news is that Hunter Pence is relevant again and we get to talk about his quirky swing that no hitting instructor would ever teach.
Hunter Pence has turned back the clock and is looking like his prime self again. Some of that can be attributed to the confidence of playing for the Texas Rangers instead of the hitters’ death trap of San Fransisco, but a majority is the fact that Pence is healthy and confident again.
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When the Texas Rangers eventually fall out of contention for a playoff spot by July, teams will be calling for Hunter Pence to fill a spot in their OF or at DH. The Rangers are going to get some sort of prospect return and Pence, so long as he shows he’s healthy and producing, will get his chance to recapture October glory. We often get excited about who is coming next but in this instance, it’s exciting to see a once excellent player returning to relevance.