With the defensive shift now a thing of the past, these are the players who may benefit the most from the ban. There were 33 players who faced a shift in 80% or more of their plate appearances in 2022, and the player with the most PAs vs. the shift was also the leader in 2021: the Bucs' new DH, Carlos Santana.
These are the players who faced the shift in over 80% of their PAs:
1 - Santana, 98.1%
2 - Cal Raleigh, 96.2%
3 - Jose Ramirez, 93.9%
4 - Rougned Odor, 93.8%
5 - Kole Calhoun, 93.4%
6 - Vinnie Pasquantino, 93.2%
7 - Corey Seager, 92.8%
8 - Aaron Hicks, 92.8%
9 - Kyle Tucker, 90.9%
10 - Cody Bellinger, 90.5%
11 - Kyle Schwarber, 90.5%
12 - Joey Gallo, 90.0%
13 - Max Kepler, 89.7%
14 - Max Muncy, 89.0%
15 - Seth Brown, 88.6%
16 - Shoehei Ohtani, 88.3%
17 - Yordan Alvarez, 88.1%
18 - Jorge Polanco, 86.3%
19 - Joey Votto, 86.2%
20 - Anthony santander, 85.3%
21 - Brandon Lowe, 85.3%
22 - Brandon Belt, 85.2%
23 - Ji-Man Choi, 83.9%
24 - Eddie Rosario, 83.6%
25 - Cavan Biggio, 82.8%
26 - Robbie Grossman, 82.6%
27 - Anthony Rizzo, 82.6%
28 - Keibert Ruiz, 82.3%
29 - Matt Olson, 81.3%
30 - Mike Yastrzemski, 81.2%
31 - Mike Moustakas, 81.0%
32 - Eugenio Suarez, 80.9%
33 - Adley Rutschman, 80.3%
Many of these batters were also among the leaders in 2021.
Conversely, there were 47 batters who saw shifts in less than 3% of their PAs, led by DJ LeMahieu, Whit Merrifield & Myles Straw, who didn't see ANY plate appearances with a defensive shift. Dj LeMahieu, in fact, has seen only ONE shift in the last five seasons. Some other prominent batters in this bottom 47 include: Bo Bichette, Jon Berti, Amed Rosario, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Tim Anderson, Trea Turner, William Contreras, Nico Hoerner, Ty France, Luis Arraez, Lourdes Gurriel, Brendan Rodgers & Alec Bohm.
Since MLB expects the overall league BA to rise 12 points due to the shift elimination, from .243 to .255, it stands to reason that the batters who didn't see the shift would see their stats remain relatively stable, but the ones who saw shifts nearly all of the time could see a big rise in their production.
These are the players who faced the shift in over 80% of their PAs:
1 - Santana, 98.1%
2 - Cal Raleigh, 96.2%
3 - Jose Ramirez, 93.9%
4 - Rougned Odor, 93.8%
5 - Kole Calhoun, 93.4%
6 - Vinnie Pasquantino, 93.2%
7 - Corey Seager, 92.8%
8 - Aaron Hicks, 92.8%
9 - Kyle Tucker, 90.9%
10 - Cody Bellinger, 90.5%
11 - Kyle Schwarber, 90.5%
12 - Joey Gallo, 90.0%
13 - Max Kepler, 89.7%
14 - Max Muncy, 89.0%
15 - Seth Brown, 88.6%
16 - Shoehei Ohtani, 88.3%
17 - Yordan Alvarez, 88.1%
18 - Jorge Polanco, 86.3%
19 - Joey Votto, 86.2%
20 - Anthony santander, 85.3%
21 - Brandon Lowe, 85.3%
22 - Brandon Belt, 85.2%
23 - Ji-Man Choi, 83.9%
24 - Eddie Rosario, 83.6%
25 - Cavan Biggio, 82.8%
26 - Robbie Grossman, 82.6%
27 - Anthony Rizzo, 82.6%
28 - Keibert Ruiz, 82.3%
29 - Matt Olson, 81.3%
30 - Mike Yastrzemski, 81.2%
31 - Mike Moustakas, 81.0%
32 - Eugenio Suarez, 80.9%
33 - Adley Rutschman, 80.3%
Many of these batters were also among the leaders in 2021.
Conversely, there were 47 batters who saw shifts in less than 3% of their PAs, led by DJ LeMahieu, Whit Merrifield & Myles Straw, who didn't see ANY plate appearances with a defensive shift. Dj LeMahieu, in fact, has seen only ONE shift in the last five seasons. Some other prominent batters in this bottom 47 include: Bo Bichette, Jon Berti, Amed Rosario, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Tim Anderson, Trea Turner, William Contreras, Nico Hoerner, Ty France, Luis Arraez, Lourdes Gurriel, Brendan Rodgers & Alec Bohm.
Since MLB expects the overall league BA to rise 12 points due to the shift elimination, from .243 to .255, it stands to reason that the batters who didn't see the shift would see their stats remain relatively stable, but the ones who saw shifts nearly all of the time could see a big rise in their production.
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