How Mike Yastrzemski Has Found His Big Bat for Braves

It was almost as if a switch flipped when Mike Yastrzemski hit his first home run of the season back on May 12.

Before that swing, the Atlanta Braves’ outfielder couldn’t find any consistency. He was fighting to keep his average over the Mendoza line, and he was being sat down on strikes at a high rate.

Since then, he’s been another cog in the machine like he was expected to be after his electric spring training performance. In his last 15 games, he’s batting .406 with a 1.338 OPS, three home runs, 11 RBIs and 10 runs scored.

During this time, he’s walked off his grandfather’s team in extras, he’s sparked rallies and sprayed the ball around the field. He’s still a bat who mainly sees right-handers, but he’s shown he can get the clutch hit against a lefty.

In the most recent win over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night, he got scoring started with an RBI single that scored RBI Ozzie Albies in the top of the second inning. It was his third consecutive game with an RBI.

Another part of his turnaround has been the reduced strikeout rate. During his first 125 plate apperances, he was striking out at a 24.8% rate. In the following 40 plate appearances, it's down to 17.5%.

That statistic is the most likely to be sustainable. It would be a lot to ask of him to maintain the recent .400 average and an OPS well over 1.000. But more balls in play, that's doable, even if it's not at this low of a rate.

That, in general, will translate to more success than he had before. More balls in play, in theory, means more opportunities for something to go right.

Other metrics point to some more sustainable success as well. His hard-hit rate has ticked up from 37% to 40% since he hit his first home run. This isn't quite at his career rate of 42.5%, but he's getting closer. During that same span, his walk rate is at 18%, an improvement from the 6% it was at leading up to his first home run.

This current rate is above average for his career. However, he's typically maintained a walk rate of between 10% and 13% most seasons of his career. At rate well above where he was before isn't unprecedented.

He's showing that his pitch selection has been significantly improved of late, and he's been rewarded for it. Some of these rates will average out and find a happy medium of sorts.

If his walk rate stays somewhere in the double-digits, and he can keep that K rate at or below 20%, he's in business. What got fans excited during the spring would be popping up more frequently, and that only bodes well for a team that is at the 40-win mark before June.

Add us as a preferred source on Google