Juan Soto (2023)
Juan Soto 🇩🇴 (2023)
Juan José Soto Pacheco (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic October 25, 1998) is a Dominican professional baseball outfielder for the San Diego Padres.
He made his MLB debut in 2018 and was the runner-up for the NL Rookie of the Year Award. In 2019, he played a key part in the Nationals' first World Series championship, earning him the Babe Ruth Award. In 2020, he won the National League batting title with a .351 average. Soto has won the Silver Slugger Award three times and is a three-time All-Star.
Despite San Diego's poor season, Juan Soto was one of the few who managed to stand out, participating in all 162 regular-season games, concluding the campaign with a .275 AVG, .930 OPS, 109 RBIs, and 35 home runs. He also led the league in walks with 132.
We will analyze his offensive power and his great ability to read pitches during the 2023 season.
If you have any questions regarding the types of pitches (Fastball, Changeup, etc.), here is all the necessary information
Enjoy it 🙌
The data provided is from Baseball Savant
1- Hits
In 2023, Juan Soto faced 11 types of pitches, of which the FS Fastball (29.2%), Slider (15.5%), Sinker (15.2%), and Changeup (13.8%) were the pitches he encountered the most during this season. Additionally, he received more balls (62%) than strikes (38%). Soto stands out as a very charismatic hitter, often directing his hits to the pull side. He led in walks with 132 in the MLB, his record is 145 walks in 2021.
Soto made 156 hits, out of which 32 were doubles, 35 home runs, and one triple. 55.3% of the hits were at 95 mph or more, ranking third among the best Hard Hit % averages.(1-Matt Chapman - 56.4%, 2- Matt Olson - 55.5%, 3-Juan Soto - 55.3%)
In the chart below, we can see the distribution of hits. 43% of his hits were up the middle, making him one of the top three batters with the highest average towards the center of the baseball field (1- Yandy Diaz, 2- Randy Arozarena, 3- Juan Soto).
Now, we see in the chart below the percentage of hits by pitch type: 29.5% with FS Fastball, 18.6% with Slider, and 16.7% with Sinker.
There were 35 hits in the middle zone, out of which 45 were singles. Speaking of home runs, 18 were with FS Fastball, and in the upper part of the strike zone with 15 home runs.
45% of the hits were in the central zone, and 12.8% were outside the strike zone.
One of Soto's great qualities is how he identifies the pitches that will be thrown to him, as evidenced by his 132 walks. He has a knack for knowing when to swing at the ball, with a 35.8% swing rate, which is the second lowest average in the MLB behind Lars Nootbaar with 35.5%.
In the chart below, you can see that the vast majority of his singles were against FS Fastballs (22) and Sliders with 18.
He managed to achieve a 58 Barrels (hits with a velocity greater than 98 mph and a launch angle between 26 and 30 degrees) among his hits. Ranked in the Top 15 with the most barrels. you can see more information about Barrel here)
Soto excels in making flares and burners with 42.3%, which are hits with low trajectory and burners being hits with low trajectory and high exit velocity. His ability to consistently make these types of hits is evident, as there are only a few instances of poor quality or poorly connected hits in his performance. (0.6 Under and 2.6% Weak). You can see more about launch angle and speed.
In the last chart, we can see the radial chart of his hits, which displays the launch angle and exit velocity, out of which 105 hits had an exit velocity of 100 mph or more.
With Runners in Scoring Position (RISP), he has impressive numbers, with a .299 batting average, 71 RBI, 1.016 OPS, 39 walks, and only 30 strikeouts in 144 at-bats, which translates to a 20.8% strikeout rate.
2- Plate Discipline
Before starting this section, here's a video that showcases his plate discipline and how he typically behaves against pitchers. The video is from the 2019 World Series against Gerrit Cole, who also struck out 326 opponents that season.
As I mentioned earlier, Soto has great plate discipline but has also struck out quite a bit. Soto was the sixth player to receive the most pitches in the MLB (6- Juan Soto - 2897, 3- Nathaniel Lowe - 3044, 2- Kyle Schwarber - 3068, 1- Matt Olson - 3092).
Additionally, he had 129 strikeouts, which, although not a high number compared to other players like Schwarber (215) and Olson (167), is still a considerable amount.
In the chart below, we can see the areas where he received the most pitches were in the lower part outside the strike zone. Out of the 458 pitches (bottom-right corner), he swung and missed 21 times, made contact only 6 times, and received 408 balls.
In the other corner, out of the 468 pitches, he swung and missed 32 times, hit into play 14 times, and received 396 balls.
Outside the strike zone (the four corners of the chart below, where he received more pitches in red). Out of 1545 pitches received, 1221 (79%) were balls, 101 (6.5%) were swinging strikes, 66 (4.3%) were called strikes, and 64 (4.1%) were batted ball attempts.
In other words, 79% were correctly identified by Soto, and 4.3% were called strikes that the umpire deemed to be within the zone (but in the virtual box, they were outside the strike zone).
Now, regarding strikeouts outside the strike zone, 84.9% were swinging strikeouts, and 15.1% were called strikeouts. Ironically, Juan Soto managed to get 20 hits outside the strike zone and made 4 runs.
As you can see in the chart below, Soto achieved 73.1% called strikes and 26.9% swinging strikes. He obtained the most strikes in the lower and middle parts of the strike zone, at 31.7% (lower zone).
I hope with all this data, it's clear that Soto knows when to swing and also brings a lot of power to his swings.
During 2023, he had a Whiff rate of 20.4%, which is a decent average when compared to players like Matt Olson (28.4%) and Kyle Schwarber (31.5%).
Also, let´s talk about Swing %, within the strike zone, he had a Swing% of 57.8%, ranking in the top 10 with the lowest averages. Outside of the strike zone, he had a Swing% of 16.6%, tied for first place with Mookie Betts.
In the last chart, we can see that Juan Soto went from less to more; he took off starting in May, and he produced the most batted ball attempts with 25 in the last week of August. Also, down below, we have his plate appearance percentages, with the majority of them being at 0-0, and only 6.7% with a full count. It's worth noting that this percentage is based on the total pitches he faced in 2023; I misspoke
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