By almost any measure, the worst hitter in the the majors last season was Jonathan Schoop. That didn't stop the Tigers from sending him to the plate more than 500 times.
It will this season.
If Schoop doesn't make a concerted effort to swing at better pitches and produce like he has in the past, A.J. Hinch and the Tigers have made it clear to him that he won't be an everyday player.
The 10-year vet suddenly has a lot on the line in the final year of his contract.
"Last year was an outlier for him," Hinch said this week on 97.1 The Ticket. "We need better results from him and we need him inside the strike zone. We’ve been very direct with him: if he’s going to stay inside the strike zone and be a little bit more disciplined, he can stay in the lineup. If not, he’s going to find himself in a little bit of a different role."
This is Scott Harris talking as much as Hinch (not that Hinch isn't of the same mind). Haven't you heard? The Tigers new president of baseball ops wants his players to control the strike zone. Schoop spent last season expanding it. He had the sixth highest chase rate (40.6 percent, per FanGraphs) in the majors, which led to the worst OBP (.239), which led to the worst OPS (.561), which led to the worst wRC+ (57) among 130 qualified big-league hitters. Yeah, it was bad.
The year before, Schoop was pretty good. And the year before that. Indeed, he's been a pretty good hitter for most of his career. He entered last season with a career OPS of .748. In 2021, he posted respectable numbers across the board, including a wRC+ of 107. Hinch is right when he says 2022 was an outlier.
It was also a continuation of the norm. Schoop, 31, has always been a free swinger. His chase rate last season was actually lower than it is for his career. Same for his strikeout rate. His hard hit rate was higher than it is for his career. The biggest difference was a career-low barrel rate (4.8 percent) that placed Schoop in the bottom 20 percentile of MLB hitters. His barrel rate in 2021 was 6.8 percent.
Was Schoop just unlucky? Maybe a little. His expected batting average (.228) was a bit higher than his actual average (.202), but it's not like he was hitting missiles all over the field. He just had too many empty at-bats in an entirely empty season for the Tigers, who scored fewer than 3.5 runs per game for the first time in over 100 years. Good news is, Schoop took it personally.
"I do like that he took it seriously last year, got into better shape and came here (to spring training) prepared to play," said Hinch.
Schoop should also have the benefit of being sharp to start the season after he plays for Curacao in the World Baseball Classic this month. He's been a slow starter in each of his two seasons with the Tigers; last season, he just couldn't shake out of it.
Now, can he spend more time inside the strike zone?
"When we talk as an organization about strike zone control, knowing a ball from a strike, swinging at the right pitches, Jonathan Scoop is kind of the poster child for that," said Hinch. "We need him in the strike zone, (where) he does lot more damage. When he falls behind and he swings kind of wildly at pitches, it’s not a great result."
The Tigers want to see the same thing from Javy Baez, by the way. The two-time All-Star had the highest chase rate (48.7 percent, per FanGraphs) in the majors last season. The conversation is just a little different around a player who has five years and $120 million remaining on his contract. While the Tigers can simply move on from Schoop after this season, Baez is still part of the big picture.
The organization has to find a way to get the most out of him, which is what compelled Hinch to visit Baez in his native Puerto Rico this offseason.
"To defend the player, there were a lot of things going on last season that he didn’t adapt well to on a new team," said Hinch. "He’s a little bit more of a featured player, he signs a big contract and didn’t get off to a good start. I spent some time with him this winter, I think this season he’s much more settled-in. Now I see him being a little bit more of a leader."
What that means at the plate for Baez, where he wasn't all that better than Schoop last season aside from a late-season surge, and in the field, where he led the majors in errors, remains to be seen.
"The chase is still going to be there because the chase has been there for a decade," said Hinch. "We have to try to hone him in on the strike zone and make him hunt pitches that he can handle. There’s a lot of good that comes with Javy. There’s also some things that we’re going to continue to address that he fights himself on, some pre-meditated swings, some lack of pitch recognition. His defense has been very, very good this spring with the work that he’s put in with (infield coach) Alfredo Amezaga.
"I think we’re going to see a more settled Javy, albeit with some days that he’s trying to hit the ball out of the stadium. And the more we can minimize those and let him just be a good player all-around, the better."
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