Ranking the Dodgers, Blue Jays and MLB's Top 10 Offenses of 2022 Season
It's been a tough year for offense in Major League Baseball. Fastballs have continued to get faster, fewer fly balls have cleared fences and the league's .243 batting average is its lowest since 1968.
It therefore seems especially worthwhile to honor the offenses that have stood out in 2022.
Rather than to go overboard, we opted for a nice, simple top-10 list of the best of the best on the offensive side. Yet we didn't necessarily want to make a one-to-one copy of the top 10 for runs scored. We also weighed how teams scored runs, with the idea being to count down to the one club that has been as good in reality as it was in theory.
Note: All go-to lineups courtesy of Roster Resource.
10. San Diego Padres
1 of 10
Go-To Lineup
- LF Jurickson Profar (S)
- RF Juan Soto (L)
- 3B Manny Machado (R)
- 2B Jake Cronenworth (L)
- 1B Brandon Drury (R)
- DH Josh Bell (S)
- SS Ha-Seong Kim (R)
- C Austin Nola (R)
- CF José Azócar (R)
Key Stats: 4.36 R/G, .240 AVG, .318 OBP, .381 SLG, 104 OPS+
The San Diego Padres offense hasn't gotten appreciably better since Soto, Bell and Drury came aboard at the Aug. 2 trade deadline:
- Though Aug. 2: .699 OPS, 4.4 R/G
- Since Aug. 3: .698 OPS, 4.2 R/G
Bell hasn't done much in San Diego, while Soto and Drury have effectively been opposites. Soto has a .396 on-base percentage but only a .387 slugging percentage, while Drury has a .461 slugging percentage but only a .287 OBP.
Thank goodness for Machado, who's only had one bad month as he's otherwise carried the Padres offense with 31 home runs and a 158 OPS+. He's had one of his better years drawing walks, in which the whole club ranks fourth in the majors with 559.
That's one reason the Padres are above the league average of 4.3 runs per game, with others being that they keep the line moving with a .338 OBP with men on base and a steady supply of productive outs.
9. Milwaukee Brewers
2 of 10
Go-To Lineup
- LF Christian Yelich (L)
- SS Willy Adames (R)
- 1B Rowdy Tellez (L)
- RF Hunter Renfroe (R)
- 2B Kolten Wong (L)
- DH Andrew McCutchen (R)
- 3B Luis Urías (R)
- C Omar Narváez (L)
- CF Garrett Mitchell (L)
Key Stats: 4.51 R/G, .235 AVG, .316 OBP, .410 SLG, 105 OPS+
The easy gripe to make with the Milwaukee Brewers offense is that it doesn't have a "that guy." Renfroe's 125 OPS+ leads the team but only ranks 42nd in MLB.
There's nothing wrong with a more democratic approach to offense, however, particularly regarding Milwaukee's home run distribution. Its 213 long balls rank third in MLB, and it's likewise one of just two offenses with as many as eight players who've hit 14 or more homers.
What's more, these Brewers have tended to save their hits for when they've needed them most.
This includes a league-high-tying 107 home runs with men on base, though it's perhaps just as admirable that the Brewers have left nothing to chance with men in scoring position. Their .461 slugging percentage in such situations is the third-best in baseball.
8. Philadelphia Phillies
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Go-To Lineup
- LF Kyle Schwarber (L)
- 1B Rhys Hoskins (R)
- DH Bryce Harper (L)
- C J.T. Realmuto (R)
- 3B Alec Bohm (R)
- RF Nick Castellanos (R)
- CF Brandon Marsh (L)
- 2B Jean Segura (R)
- SS Bryson Stott (L)
Key Stats: 4.63 R/G, .254 AVG, .317 OBP, .422 SLG, 106 OPS+
Whatever the Philadelphia Phillies' hopes for their offense were going into 2022, they surely didn't involve Harper missing two months with a broken thumb and Castellanos struggling to live up to his $100 million contract.
It's thus a small miracle that the offense has sustained things as well as it has. This is mainly to the credit of Schwarber, Realmuto and Hoskins, who have an .806 OPS and 93 home runs between them.
Power has generally been the name of the game for this offense, and unsurprisingly especially so within the postage-stamp confines of Citizens Bank Park. Its 107 home runs at home check in as the second-most among National League teams.
Far from a power-only offense, though, the Phillies have also scored their runs by hitting in the clutch. It's all there in their .271 average with runners in scoring position, which is tied for second in MLB.
7. New York Mets
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Go-To Lineup
- CF Brandon Nimmo (L)
- SS Francisco Lindor (S)
- RF Jeff McNeil (L)
- 1B Pete Alonso (R)
- DH Daniel Vogelbach (L)
- LF Mark Canha (R)
- 3B Eduardo Escobar (S)
- 2B Luis Guillorme (L)
- C Tomás Nido (R)
Key Stats: 4.75 R/G, .258 AVG, .332 OBP, .409 SLG, 112 OPS+
In the middle of the New York Mets offense is one of the best home run hitters in the business. Alonso not only has 40 for the season but also an MLB-best 25 with men on base.
More broadly, though, the long ball isn't this offense's specialty.
It's more so getting guys on base, which it's done to the tune of MLB's second-highest OBP. This has notably involved a league-high 111 instances of batters getting on the painful way of hit-by-pitches, though the National League's lowest strikeout rate and a .301 average on balls in play have also helped.
When the Mets have gotten a runner aboard, they've beaten the MLB average (and then some) by scoring him 32 percent of the time. That's what productive outs and a .269 average with runners in scoring position will do for you.
6. New York Yankees
5 of 10
Go-To Lineup
- RF Aaron Judge (R)
- 1B Anthony Rizzo (L)
- 2B Gleyber Torres (R)
- 3B Josh Donaldson (R)
- DH Giancarlo Stanton (R)
- LF Oswaldo Cabrera (S)
- CF Harrison Bader (R)
- SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa (R)
- C Jose Trevino (R)
Key Stats: 5.04 R/G, .241 AVG, .324 OBP, .427 SLG, 113 OPS+
It might seem like we're dramatically under-ranking the New York Yankees offense by leaving it out of the top five, but we have our reasons.
For one, it's clearly been missing something since resurgent slugger Matt Carpenter fractured his foot on Aug. 8. For two, runs created shows just how much this offense has basically been a one-man show:
Of course, what Judge has done obviously still counts in favor of the Yankees offense. This especially goes for his 61 home runs and 108 walks, without which the Yankees wouldn't lead the majors in both categories.
That's a pretty good way to score runs in theory, and the fact that the Yankees are second in the majors with 786 total runs scored confirms as much in reality.
5. Houston Astros
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Go-To Lineup
- 2B Jose Altuve (R)
- 3B Alex Bregman (R)
- DH Yordan Álvarez (L)
- RF Kyle Tucker (L)
- LF Trey Mancini (R)
- 1B Yuli Gurriel (R)
- SS Jeremy Peña (R)
- CF Chas McCormick (R)
- C Martín Maldonado (R)
Key Stats: 4.58 R/G, .247 AVG, .319 OBP, .423 SLG, 110 OPS+
This Houston Astros offense is not as deep as ones from previous seasons, specifically to the extent that it's in the bottom five for OPS out of catcher, first base and center field. This is not even to mention that Michael Brantley has missed most of the year with a shoulder injury.
Things are, however, mostly still very good.
If nothing else, Houston has perhaps the best core four in baseball by way of Álvarez, Altuve, Bregman and Tucker. Each has at least a 130 OPS+ and 20 home runs, numbers that allow them to stand alone relative to other offensive foursomes.
The other typical qualities of a recent Astros offense are also still there. Namely, one of MLB's lowest strikeout rates and a high power output by way of its fourth-ranked 209 home runs.
4. St. Louis Cardinals
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Go-To Lineup
- 2B Brendan Donovan (L)
- RF Lars Nootbaar (L)
- 1B Paul Goldschmidt (R)
- 3B Nolan Arenado (R)
- LF Corey Dickerson (L)
- DH Albert Pujols (R)
- CF Dylan Carlson (S)
- C Yadier Molina (R)
- SS Tommy Edman (S)
Key Stats: 4.72 R/G, .252 AVG, .325 OBP, .421 SLG, 115 OPS+
The St. Louis Cardinals' ideal lineup would feature the version of Tyler O'Neill who slugged 34 home runs in 2021 rather than the one who's missed all but 96 games and otherwise struggled in 2022.
That the offense has nonetheless chugged along is largely thanks to Goldschmidt and Arenado, who are baseball's only duo with a 150 OPS+ and 30 home runs apiece.
We also obviously can't overlook Pujols, who's helped supercharge things with his surge to 701 career home runs. To wit, the Cardinals have hit the second-most homers in the league since Pujols' bat caught fire July 10.
Yet even as much as the veterans have driven the bus in 2022, the Cardinals also owe a lot to their 20-something hitters. The foursome of Carlson, Donovan, Nootbaar and Juan Yepez, in particular, has accounted for a .749 OPS (the league average is .707) and 39 home runs.
3. Atlanta
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Go-To Lineup
- RF Ronald Acuña Jr. (R)
- SS Dansby Swanson (R)
- CF Michael Harris II (L)
- 3B Austin Riley (R)
- 1B Matt Olson (L)
- C Travis d'Arnaud (R)
- DH William Contreras (R)
- LF Eddie Rosario (L)
- 2B Orlando Arcia (R)
Key Stats: 4.90 R/G, .253 AVG, .317 OBP, .444 SLG, 110 OPS+
If you prefer that a team has a holistic approach to scoring runs, this Atlanta offense is not for you.
Neither its .253 average nor its .317 OBP is a standout mark, and the unit is definitely an outlier among contenders with regard to how it balances walks and strikeouts:
All the same, the 33 percent success rate that Atlanta has with bringing home what baserunners it puts on ranks second to only the Los Angeles Dodgers. The explanation for that is quite simple, in that runners do tend to score when you hit the ball a long way.
Atlanta is second overall with 237 home runs and first with a .467 slugging percentage with runners in scoring position.
2. Toronto Blue Jays
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Go-To Lineup
- CF George Springer (R)
- SS Bo Bichette (R)
- 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (R)
- DH Alejandro Kirk (R)
- 3B Matt Chapman (R)
- RF Teoscar Hernández (R)
- LF Raimel Tapia (L)
- C Danny Jansen (R)
- 2B Whit Merrifield (R)
Key Stats: 4.75 R/G, .261 AVG, .326 OBP, .429 SLG, 115 OPS+
The Toronto Blue Jays offense arguably isn't as good as it should be, given that it's tied for fourth in scoring while otherwise ranking first in average, third in OBP and third in slugging.
Having the third-most double plays in MLB is no way for an efficient offense to operate. And Toronto's .260 average with runners in scoring position falls well short of spectacular.
There are few problems a little power can't solve, however, and the Blue Jays have a lot of that. They're one of only four teams with five players who've hit at least 20 home runs. They're also tied for the highest rate of extra-base hits in the American League.
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
10 of 10
Go-To Lineup
- RF Mookie Betts (R)
- SS Trea Turner (R)
- 1B Freddie Freeman (L)
- C Will Smith (R)
- 3B Max Muncy (L)
- DH Justin Turner (R)
- 2B Gavin Lux (L)
- LF Chris Taylor (R)
- CF Cody Bellinger (L)
Key Stats: 5.29 R/G, .258 AVG, .335 OBP, .445 SLG, 113 OPS+
There's perhaps no right way to lead MLB in runs scored, but it's hard to argue with how the Los Angeles Dodgers do it: They have both the highest on-base percentage and the best success rate for scoring baserunners.
Contrary to the Blue Jays, the Dodgers excel at not hitting into double plays. Though it's far from uncommon for their hitters to bat with a runner on first and one or no outs, their 85 double plays are the second-fewest in the majors.
That'll play. So, too, will such things as having the highest success rate on stolen bases, the highest rate of extra-base hits and the highest average with runners in scoring position.
If the question is ultimately what's not to like about this Dodgers offense, there can only be one answer: nothing.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant, current through play on Friday, Sep. 30.
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