After averaging 53 walks in 2021 and 2022, Cedric Mullins is on pace for 106 bases on balls this year. (Colin E. Braley, AP)
Through the first month of the season, the Orioles find themselves in a position no Baltimore offense this century has been: near the top of the walks leaderboard.
The Orioles rank high in several pitch-discipline stats, including fourth in walk rate and pitches per plate appearance — a stark contrast to the free-swinging clubs of yesteryear.
But the Orioles aren’t just seeing a lot of pitches for the sake of seeing pitches, co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte said.
“We’re not necessarily trying to see more pitches,” Borgschulte said. “We’re trying to swing at the right ones.”
Entering Tuesday, the Orioles walked in 10.2% of their plate appearances and averaged 4.03 pitches in those trips to the plate. The last time the club accepted free passes that often was in 1995. The only three teams in the majors who are walking more often than the Orioles are the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and San Diego Padres — three teams projected to be playoff teams.
Early season stats can be fickle, as the Orioles have only played 29 games out of 162. But manager Brandon Hyde believes the plate discipline figures are “sustainable.”
“I think that’s an offensive mindset and approach that we can continue throughout the entire year,” Hyde said.
One of the main reasons the Orioles are walking more is player development. Two players in particular, Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, are now in the show and have displayed the elite batting eye and plate discipline that saw them garner top prospect status and zoom through the Orioles’ minor league system.
Rutschman leads the American League in walks with 23, while Henderson’s 20.6% walk rate leads all qualified hitters in the AL.
“What was harped on [in the minors] was swing decisions, swinging at pitches in the zone,” Henderson said. “Having that mindset — swinging if it’s in the zone, and if you think it’s outside of it don’t swing — that’s how you have to live here in the big leagues.”
Rutschman went 4-for-5 with a walk in Tuesday’s win over the Kansas City Royals, and Henderson drew three bases on balls to increase his season total to 20 in 24 games. Rutschman’s on-base percentage is .429, while Henderson’s is .361 despite having a .184 batting average. As a team, the Orioles have the fourth-best on-base percentage in MLB at .341 — significantly better than the club’s .305 mark in 2022.
It’s not just Rutschman and Henderson, though. Cedric Mullins, who leads off versus right-handed starting pitchers, also ranks near the top of the AL in walks with 19. And players like Jorge Mateo, Ramón Urías and Austin Hays are walking at higher rates than they did in 2022.
It’s difficult, Hyde said, for players to learn how to be disciplined at the plate once they reach the major leagues. After ranking in the bottom five among MLB teams in walk rate in his first three seasons, the Orioles were 16th in 2022 before jumping into the top five this year. Even when Baltimore led the AL in wins from 2012 to 2016 under the previous regime with different offensive priorities, the team ranked in the bottom five in walk rate, as players like Adam Jones, J.J. Hardy and Jonathan Schoop rarely walked and relied on their slugging to score runs.
“I think it’s really hard to change players when they get to the big leagues, especially in that,” Hyde said. “I think we’ve done as well as we possibly could with that.”
The challenge in picking up plate-discipline skills in the majors is partly why, Borgschulte said, the Orioles emphasize making good swing decisions in the minors.
“These guys have been trained since they were drafted that this is a really important part of the game, and it only gets more challenging as you go up,” he said.
Mullins, who debuted with the Orioles in 2018, averaged 53 walks in 2021 and 2022, but he’s on pace for 106 bases on balls this year. The 28-year-old speedster said he worked on improving his swing decisions this offseason by studying how pitchers were attacking him last year.
Mullins ranked in the bottom 50% of qualified hitters in walk rate and chase percentage in each season from 2020 to 2022, according to Statcast. So far this year, Mullins has joined the tier of patience and discipline that Rutschman and Henderson are in, ranking in the top 10% in both figures.
“That’s one thing that’s hard to work on in the offseason is your eye,” Mullins said. “What you can see is the pitches you did chase a decent amount the previous year, pitches you do damage to and configuring an approach that you can take into the season. That was something I put a huge focus on this offseason.”
Not every Oriole, of course, is laying off pitches at a career-best rate. Ryan Mountcastle, like Mullins, was drafted by the previous regime, but he is the freest swinger in the Orioles’ lineup. Few players in the majors have a worse chase rate than Mountcastle since he was called up in 2020, and so far this year, he ranks in the bottom 2% in chase rate and bottom 6% in walk rate, according to Statcast.
“They were always telling me [in the minors] I needed to walk more,” Mountcastle said. “I’ve always been a guy that if I’ve been looking to walk or thinking too much about the right pitch to hit, I’m not gonna hit the ball. I could walk more, but I think that would negatively affect my performance.”
But having a slugger who hacks away like Mountcastle — who hit his seventh and eighth homers of the season Tuesday and leads the team in RBIs with 26 — is easier to manage when the players hitting around him are more patient.
“It seems like a lot of the guys are getting the right pitch to hit,” Mountcastle said. “That gives me more opportunity to drive them in. Guys like Adley and Gunnar are unreal right now with their pitch selection. Watching them go through at-bats is pretty impressive.”
It’s also likely the Orioles are walking more and seeing more pitches simply because they’re better and pitchers are respecting them more. With a lineup that ranks in the top 10 in slugging percentage, OPS and average exit velocity, pitchers can’t treat Baltimore’s lineup the way they have in the past.
“There’s protection up and down the lineup,” Mullins said.
Opponents are throwing pitches in the zone at a lower rate against the Orioles (46.6%) than versus any other team in the majors. And with the Orioles not chasing as often — as in the game against the Boston Red Sox’s Chris Sale when they didn’t strike out once and rarely swung and missed — some of those pitches that are in the zone are being punished.
Mountcastle used the example of Jorge Mateo, who is statistically one of the best hitters in baseball with a 1.020 OPS but is usually in the bottom third of the batting order. Tuesday offered another example, as Mullins was in the No. 9 hole against a left-handed starter and went 1-for-3 with two RBIs and two walks.
“This year is probably the best lineup I’ve been a part of,” Mountcastle said. “One through nine, it’s all tough outs.”
Orioles at Royals
Wednesday, 7:40 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Originally published at Tribune News Service