How Otto Lopez Radically Transformed Into MLB’s Best Pure Hitter

The Marlins shortstop leads the majors in both hits and batting average after retooling his plate approach during the offseason.

Otto Lopez leads the majors with 101 hits and a .332 batting average. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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Two years after the Giants released him after just one month with the team, Otto Lopez, 27, of the Marlins might be an All-Star and a batting champion. Nobody in baseball has posted a bigger improvement in batting average from last year than Lopez (+.088).

After hitting .246 last year, with a woeful career OPS+ of 91 after more than a thousand plate appearances, Lopez worked with Marlins hitting coach Pedro Guerrero in the winter to retool his approach at the plate. The idea was to get into a crouched, more loaded position and explode into the baseball while shifting his weight to his front side. Bottom line: Lopez is using his legs more.

The result: more bat speed, moving his contact point farther in front of the plate and a career high exit velocity that is helping his groundballs get through infields rather than becoming outs. Lopez is attacking the baseball rather than fighting it off the other way.

The results are most dramatic in three areas: 1. Being on time for fastballs. 2. Hitting the ball harder. 3. Driving groundballs through infields.

The metrics are clear that Lopez is a different hitter than what he had been in his career:

Year	BA vs. Fastballs	SLG vs. Fastballs	Avg. Exit Velocity	Groundball BA
2022–25	.266	.390	88.3	.253
2026	.388	.560	90.1	.376

The three most improved hitters in baseball this year: 1. Jordan Walker, Cardinals; 2. Otto Lopez, Marlins; 3. Oneil Cruz, Pirates; 4. JJ Bleday, Reds.

Lopez turned around his career. See it for yourself how he did it here.

TV on TV This Week

Thursday, June 25: Yankees @ Red Sox, 7 p.m. ET (MLB Network)

It’s back up the truck time for the Red Sox, though their pieces of value at the trade deadline are limited beyond Aroldis Chapman. Sonny Gray is too expensive as a likely rental, Jarren Durran has regressed, doesn’t hit lefties and has a career OPS 72 points worse outside of Fenway and Willson Contreras is a bat worth keeping. The Red Sox lost 43 of their first 74 games. It’s over, even in a mediocre AL. No team in the wild card era ever came back from such a poor record and made the postseason.

The Red Sox overrated their talent, traded the wrong players (Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs III) and foolishly built a team with little power to play in a hitter’s ballpark. Boston is last in the league in runs for the first time since 1932 and has its worst home winning percentage (.324) since 1906, before Fenway Park was built.

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