Late Night Lamonte
Image from Jefferey Chiu/Associated Press (Getty Images)
Lamonte Wade Jr. recently made headlines for hitting the 100th splash hit at Oracle Park. Lamonte Wade Jr., first-basemen and outfielder for the San Francisco Giants is off to a hot start in the 2023 MLB season. Lamonte earned his nickname “Late-Night Lamonte” in 2021 when he consistently came up with clutch hits as a substitution, late in games. He has become an everyday starter this year and is contending to be an All-Star this summer.
Wade Jr. is slashing .285/.429/.480 (avg./obp./slg.) with an OPS of .909. Lamonte’s OBP and OPS rank top ten in the MLB through the first week of June. Although Lamonte has shown great potential in previous seasons with the Giants, it is surprising how fast he has risen to an elite hitter in the game. He caught fire shortly after a slew of injuries prevented him from playing complete seasons in 2021 and 2022.
Besides staying healthy, Wade Jr. has increased his hitting production by making one critical adjustment. Lamonte has drastically improved his ability to not swing at pitches outside of the strike zone. This is referred to as the chase rate. Having a low chase rate is common in good hitters and has been recognized in stars such as Joey Votto and Juan Soto. When observing Lamonte’s advanced analytical hitting breakdown, three categories stand out.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/lamonte-wade-jr-664774?stats=career-r-hitting-mlb
The table above shows that Wade Jr is in the 99th and 100th percentile for walk rate and chase rate respectively. This has resulted in being in the 95th percentile for xwOBA, a statistic that takes weighed averages of many hitting statistics to create an expected on-base average. As of June 7th, Lamonte Wade Jr. has a chase rate of %15.3 second behind Juna Soto at %15.2. An impressive feat for both athletes considering the high velocity and physics-defying movement of modern MLB pitching.
Along with similar chase rates, Wade Jr. and Soto have quite comparable slash lines. This is not to say that they possess equal skills as hitters. This is to demonstrate the high value of Lamonte Wade Jr. relative to his salary. Lamonte is on a one-year $1.375 million dollar deal as opposed to Soto who is earning $23 million dollars this year. If Lamonte Wade Jr. stays on his current trajectory we could see a young star sign a huge deal at the end of this season.
