San Diego diligently roamed the shortstop free agent (FA) market ahead of this season. This was the case even with two top-notch shortstops, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Kim Ha-seong.
There was a reason. Tatis Jr. has had a lot of shoulder injuries. This shoulder was always controversial when he was at the shortstop position. Besides, he wasn’t good at defense. Although he looked glamorous, he made a lot of small mistakes and lacked bona fides. So, opinions were raised that it would be better to send them to the outfield to maximize their offensive power, and San Diego actually moved that way. Fixed as an outfielder.메이저놀이터
Kim Ha-seong was on the opposite side of Tatis Jr. He had a good defense that was one of the best in the league. However, the offense was league average. In response, San Diego signed an 11-year, $280 million (approximately 371 billion won) contract with Xander Bogarts to reinforce the shortstop position. His defensive metrics fluctuated year after year, but at least he was a solid All-Star shortstop on offense. Ha-seong Kim could have been sent to second base.
Bogarts made a hot team debut early in the season, leading the San Diego offense. It was clear that Manny Machado and Juan Soto led the team’s offense alone when key players were sluggish and Tatis Jr. was not contributing to the team due to disciplinary action. This was a difficult value for Kim Ha-seong to provide to the team. In addition, the shortstop defense showed a much improved appearance, and even the title of ‘recruitment success’ was attached. But the problem was that momentum only lasted a month.
Bogarts is rotting fans with incomprehensible batting results in May. Bogatz, whose wrists are known to be in poor condition, diligently played in 23 games in May, but only had a batting average of 0.184. His OPS, the sum of his on-base percentage and slugging percentage, is just 0.529. It’s heartbreaking that a player who earns an average of about $25.45 million a year is staying at this level.
Rather, he has less offensive power than Kim Ha-seong. Kim Ha-seong struggled with a batting average of 0.282, an on-base percentage of 0.366, and an OPS of 0.817 in 22 games in May. Offensive production has improved since April. On the other hand, Bogaerts has only one home run in 87 at-bats in May. His batting average went down, and his slugging percentage also went down.
The trend that was good in April, Bogatz who forgot all the indicators he had earned. Of course, as a player with a solid career, he can expect a rebound and reversal sooner or later. However, he is not positive about detailed indicators. It is evident that he lacks power in the batted ball as a whole.
Bogarts’ average exit velocity itself hasn’t changed much, but he’s getting too many ground balls. The average launch angle of Bogatz in 2021 was 12.5 degrees, and last year it was 10.2 degrees. But this year, the launch angle was cut in half at 5.2 degrees.
The hard hit rate, which means a ball hit at 95 miles per hour (152.9 km) or more, fell from 43% in 2021 and 39.5% last year to 33.3% this year. It’s fortunate that the walk/strikeout ratio hasn’t collapsed, but if this is the aftermath of a wrist injury, the slump could go all season. This is because he has a tight schedule that makes it difficult to take care of his body unless he is on the injured list.
In the ‘expected batting average’ judged by the ‘Statcast’ system comprehensively considering the quality of the ball, launch angle, and distance, Bogatz scored only 0.238 this year. The quality of batting balls is also not good. This is not much different from Kim Ha-sung’s expected batting average (.237). He recruited him for a total of 280 million dollars and even changed the place of Kim Ha-seong, who had been playing fine, but with this level of performance, of course, he could not find his match.