Everything I Love and Hate About the MLB 2022 Season Right Now
The 2022 Major League Baseball season has been going for almost three weeks now. How you feel about it so far is up to, well, you.
As for me? There are some things that I love and other things that I don't.
I figured I might as well let it all out in an article that's going to be half excitable ranting and half annoyed ranting about specific teams and players and broader leaguewide trends. I did my best not to repeat points I've already made in other places, but it was unavoidable in some cases.
Now then, let's start with an oh-so-wholesome story that's developing in the Pacific Northwest.
I Love That the Seattle Mariners Are in 1st Place
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I didn't choose to start here because I'm a fan of the Seattle Mariners. I just like a good story, and them finally snapping their longstanding playoff drought would certainly qualify.
So far, so good.
By way of their 10-6 record, the Mariners have grabbed the early lead in the American League West and boosted their playoff odds accordingly. Per FanGraphs, their chances of playing in October for the first time since 2001 have basically doubled since the season opened on April 7.
One could see this as the next logical step for the Mariners after they just missed the postseason with a 90-win campaign in 2021, yet this effort is decidedly more believable so far. Rather than unsustainable good luck, the M's are riding a pitching staff that bears a 2.96 ERA and an offense with the highest on-base percentage in the American League.
No fanbase deserves to suffer through a 20-year playoff drought, but it feels particularly cruel that it happened to this one. Seattle was once the rocking-est baseball town in the American League, after all, and I've found Mariners fans to be among the best to talk baseball with. I don't mind rooting for their cause from the sidelines.
I Hate That the Texas Rangers Aren't Even Competitive
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Elsewhere in the American League West, it just plain sucks to watch what's happening to the Texas Rangers.
I can't say that I was ever convinced that they would be able to quickly return to contention after a 102-loss season in 2021, but I appreciated that they at least tried to put themselves on that path with the moves they made over the winter. Even if $500 million of it was for just two players, their $581 million splurge in free agency was nonetheless impressive.
Unfortunately, it's starting to look like a waste amid the team's 6-10 start to the season.
Notably, the half-billion dollars that the Rangers spent on Corey Seager and Marcus Semien have bought just a .569 combined OPS. Jon Gray, who inked a $56 million deal, got lit up for a 7.00 ERA in two starts before going on the injured list with a sprained knee.
In fairness, the Rangers' run differential suggests that they deserve a better record than the one they have. But until they start winning more games, they simply aren't going to be the anti-tanking poster boy that Major League Baseball frankly needs these days.
I Love That Wander Franco Is Only Getting Better
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Now back to the good stuff, which would actually make for a pretty good three-word nickname for one Wander Franco.
Between his 43-game on-base streak and the show he put on in the Tampa Bay Rays' brief stay in October, Franco gave himself a hard act to follow with his debut season in 2021. Yet he's not only following it, but improving on it in 2022. He's hitting .349 so far, which brings his average since last July 22 to an MLB-best .330.
What's more, the 21-year-old has even been flashing the leather:
Far from surprising, Franco's rise as a star over the last year or so is what we were all warned was going to happen. The guy was a consensus No. 1 prospect two years in a row, after all.
Even still, there are savior vibes coming off Franco. The nerd in me—a big part of me, to be sure—especially likes that he can be both an aggressive swinger (21st percentile chase rate) and an elite contact hitter (99th percentile strikeout rate). In a time when too many hitters are about working counts and hitting home runs, baseball could use more guys like Franco.
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I Hate That So Many Rookie Hitters Are Having a Hard Time
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While Franco is lighting things up in his sophomore season, the league isn't devoid of talented rookie batsmen. Seiya Suzuki and Steven Kwan, in particular, have been revelations.
As a whole, though, it hasn't been pretty for rookie hitters.
According to FanGraphs, they're batting a collective .209/.295/.325 on the young season. There have been worse on-base and slugging percentages posted by rookies, but that .209 average is the worst they've ever had in a season.
Among the worst offenders are Kansas City Royals infielder Bobby Witt Jr. (.185 AVG) and Mariners outfielder Julio Rodriguez (.196), who had come into the season as B/R's No. 1 and No. 3 prospects. It's likewise been rough sledding for other notables like C.J. Abrams (.143), Josh Lowe (.170) and Bryson Stott (.133).
It wasn't supposed to be this way, as it's precisely because of new measures in the collective bargaining agreement that these guys and others began the season on Opening Day rosters rather than in the minors. One supposes the lesson here is that no amount of bargaining is ever going to make it easy to play in the major leagues.
I Love That Mike Trout and Cody Bellinger Are Back
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Regarding a couple former Rookie of the Year winners, thank goodness that Mike Trout and Cody Bellinger are back to destroying baseballs.
Through his first 12 games with the Los Angeles Angels, Trout is batting .326/.436/.696 with four long balls. After starting slow, Bellinger has gotten red-hot by going 13-for-45 with four homers in his last 12 outings for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
When Trout and Bellinger captured the MVP awards in 2019, it looked like the former simply couldn't be stopped and that the latter was merely getting started on his own reign as a super-duper-star. The 2020 and 2021 seasons obviously got in the way of these trajectories, as both players battled injuries and combined for just 3.6 rWAR over 240 games.
As I would like to one day tell my grandkids that I got to watch the greatest baseball player ever, I'm relieved that Trout isn't yet finished adding to his resume as baseball's GOAT. Even after all he's been through, he still ranks ahead of Willie Mays in rWAR through the age of 30.
As for Bellinger, you just never want to see a guy have his best years in his early 20s and then fade from the spotlight. That's apparently not going to happen with him, which I can't say I saw coming as he was co-leading the league in strikeouts during spring training.
I Hate That Nobody Else Can Hit
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Now, if only the rest of the league could also hit.
If I'm exaggerating, it's only by a little bit. Offense is way the heck down in 2022, to one tune of 4.00 runs per game and a .231 leaguewide batting average. The latter is on track to be the lowest of all-time.
In an attempt to explain what's going on, I wrote a column that highlights factors such as the ball not behaving like it should, batters not getting to see starting pitchers as many times, too many breaking balls and off-speed pitches and those dastardly shifts. You know, the works.
It's one thing to spot problems, though, and another thing to fix them. At least for now, that's where I and Major League Baseball might be equally powerless. Contrary to the sticky-stuff crisis that enveloped baseball last year, there doesn't seem to be a magic bullet for this new offensive outage.
I guess this is a good thing if you like getting daily alerts about no-hitters and perfect games in progress. But rather than too much of that very specific good thing, I'd personally rather have merely enough offense.
I Love All the Surprising Pitchers
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If there's one bright side of all the amazing pitching that's been happening this season, for me it's that it's mainly happening because of unusual suspects.
Rather than a Max Scherzer, a Gerrit Cole or a Corbin Burnes, the best pitcher in baseball right now is arguably New York Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes. The same Nestor Cortes with the eccentric wind-ups and the low-90s fastball, which is to say the same Nestor Cortes who wouldn't seem to have any business being elite.
And yet, there he is with a 1.15 ERA and a 25-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio through three starts. Plus this play, which simply must be shared at any available opportunity:
Apart from Cortes, baseball's early rWAR leaderboard features an unlikely reliever (Keegan Thompson), a couple of reclamation projects (Chad Kuhl and Dylan Bundy), a seemingly failed prospect (Kyle Wright) and a 38-year-old with two strikeouts in 16 innings (Zack Greinke).
This is probably just small sample size noise and thus not something that necessarily means anything. But whatever, says I. This is like going to the movies for the purpose of seeing a corporate superhero movie, but getting Everything Everywhere All at Once instead. Sometimes you just gotta enjoy the unexpected.
I Hate All the Short Starts and Pitching Changes
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Even if there has indeed been some good starting pitching this season, a problem that can't be ignored is that there hasn't been that much of it.
Starting pitchers are averaging just 4.7 innings and 77 pitches per start. That's down from 5.0 innings and 83 pitches in 2021, which was down from 5.2 innings and 86 pitches in 2019, which was down from 5.4 innings and 88 pitches in 2018, which...well, you get the idea.
At least this time, there's a good excuse for all the short outings. To quote what Clayton Kershaw told reporters after Dodgers manager Dave Roberts yanked him after seven perfect innings on April 13: "Blame it on the lockout."
It not only pushed back the start of spring training and thus left starters with less time to ramp up for the season, but also necessitated a temporary expansion of rosters from 26 to 28. It's no wonder that this season is setting a new record for pitchers per game.
Granted, starters should be built up by the time the roster expansion expires on May 1. But knowing how they were trending even before this season, this particular genie probably isn't going all the way back in the bottle until Major League Baseball does something to incentivize longer starts. For example, limiting how many pitchers teams can carry.
I Love That There Are Some Good Trends Going On
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The last two rants have made me feel a bit like an old man yelling at a cloud, so let me clarify that not everything that's happening in baseball right now is the worst.
The universal designated hitter, for example, is nice to have. Even if the DH position is on track for its lowest OPS ever, watching actual hitters in the batter's box still beats watching pitchers lay down bunts and otherwise helplessly flail around. Plus, the universal DH is a factor in the three-true-outcomes rate taking yet another step down.
It's also a good thing that, even despite all the pitching changes, the average time per nine-inning game is down four minutes from 2021. That's at least partially thanks to the new PitchCom system, which does seem to be speeding things up when it's in use.
While it's too early to read too much into attendance figures, I'll risk sounding foolishly optimistic in noting that games are averaging 26,917 fans. Not bad, considering that there was just a lockout and that inflation was at a 40-year high as of March.
I'd also be remiss if I didn't tip my cap to Alyssa Nakken, who became the first woman to assume an on-field coaching position when she took over at first base for the San Francisco Giants on April 12. And also, to the 10 other women coaching in the major and minor leagues. The wider that door opens, the harder it will be to forgive that it was ever closed.
I Hate All the Bad Optics
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OK, then, back to yelling at clouds. Starting with the fact that I, noted attendance optimist, can't help but cringe at what's going on with the Oakland Athletics.
Not because A's fans aren't showing up to RingCentral Coliseum, mind you, but because the organization might as well have deemed it so. You just can't keep trading away star players and expect the support to still be there, much less after jacking up ticket prices.
Speaking of fans, it's also deserving of a cringe that a small number of Yankees fans didn't exactly do the whole base proud on Saturday:
Meanwhile back on the field, baseball is frustratingly still dealing with occasional controversies over institutions that should have been let go a long time ago. Namely, the unwritten rules and Angel Hernandez, who added to his legend as baseball's most insufferable umpire on Sunday:
There's nothing that ties these things together other than the fact that they're just plain bad optics. I want to hope that they're at least of the avoidably bad variety, but probably not. As in all walks of life, baseball will only ever be a couple of bad actors away from bad press.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
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