NL teams seeking answers to the leadoff spot
By Bill Felber
Atlanta Braves: If he can stay healthy, Ronald Acuna is the obvious hope. At the time of his injury, Acuna was toting a .394 on base average. That’s nearly 25 percent better than the major league average. Beyond that, Acuna managed to get himself into scoring position in nearly 17 percent of his at bats, about 70 percent better than the 9.2 percent MLB average.
He also knew how to find the plate. Acuna scored on 20 percent of his plate appearances this season, again close to 70 percent above the MLB norm.
Since Acuna is signed for the foreseeable future, the Braves are one of the few teams that appears to be set at leadoff.
Miami Marlins: The Marlins began the season with one of the most qualified leadoff hitters in baseball, Starling Marte. Marte has a superb .385 on base average, he is reaching second base unaided at a .169 rate, and 16.7 percent of his plate appearances have ended in a run.
Two problems. First, the Marlins never recognized Marte’s leadoff skills. They tended to bat him second behind Jazz Chisholm, whose .304 OBA is below the major league average. Second, the Marlins traded Marte to Oakland, which for the record has also preferred to bat Marte second. In Oakland he hits behind Josh Harrison, whose on base average is also sub-par.
Marte is a free agent this winter, a factoid teams in search of a leadoff man may wish to note.
The presumptive Marlins leadoff hitters entering 2022 are Chisholm or shortstop Miguel Rojas. At .326, Rojas has a slightly above average on base facility, although he needs to go some to reach the .370 plateau that would be desirable for a good leadoff hitter.
Both reach second unaided about 10.5 percent of the time, an acceptable performance level for that skill. With a 12.45 run scoring rate, Rojas is slightly above the MLB 12.1 percent average, but he hasn’t yet reached the 14.5 percent desirability level for a leadoff hitter. Chisholm (14.3 percent) measures up in that category.