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Evan Longoria is currently having one of the best seasons of his career with the San Francisco Giants. While he did miss some time to injury, he still has a .373 wOBA and .885 OPS. What is he doing better this season than in years past?
Improved Plate Discipline
Longoria’s been in the majors for 13 seasons now. At this point in anybody’s career it is difficult to make changes. But one thing Longoria’s done exceptionally well this season relates to his plate discipline.
And that would be how he is seeing and reacting to pitches. Longoria never had a great walk rate, but this season it peaked at nearly 13%. He is walking more than three times more frequently than he was walking in 2020.
This is because his chase rate plummeted. Longoria’s chase rate went from 28% in 2020 to 18% this season. An 18% chase rate is also significantly less than league average, which is 29%. This tells us that Longoria is doing a much better job of recognizing pitches and laying off.
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Better Batted Ball Profile
With a 55% hard hit rate and 14% barrel rate, Longoria is hitting balls with the best quality of contact of his career.
While he does not appear to have changed his batting stance, this season he has altered his batted ball profile. Longoria is hitting the fewest number of ground balls since his 2015 season and the most fly balls of his career. His ground ball percentage decreased from 50% in 2020 to 38% this season.
While decreasing ground ball percentages is not always a positive thing, in Longoria’s case it is. This season, he is re-channeling his power from his early days with the Rays. His slugging percentage has exceeded where it was in 2008-2010, the best seasons of Longoria’s career. While his power has always favored the pull-side, Longoria has more opposite field extra base hits this season.
His average launch angle this season is the highest it’s been since before 2015, at 16.5 degrees. That is a 5.8 degree increase from 2020, and is meaningful because it demonstrates that Longoria has been able to put the ball in the air more frequently this season, which is important for someone of his hitting profile.
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The Giants’ coaching staff is really doing something special with their players in San Francisco and Longoria is no exception. They helped him regain his former power and channel it into hits with more meaningful results.
At only 35 years old, Longoria still has some playing time left in his career. And if he continues using the tips and approach that the Giants have implemented with him this season, he will spend his final few years in baseball being very successful.