Bronx Pinstripes · May 22, 2020
DJ LeMahieu can hit anything, anywhere
DJ LeMahieu was certainly the team MVP last year. He put up an fWAR of 5.4, which is considered to be “superstar” level. In contrast, Manny Machado had a 3.1 fWAR, which lands in FanGraphs’ “good player” category. These fWARs translate to a 0.45 WAR/$1 million for LeMahieu versus a 0.10 WAR/$1 million for Machado.
One reason LeMahieu was so good last year was because of his impeccable plate coverage. He could get a hit no matter where the pitch was located.
The average line drive percentage across the majors in 2019 was 25.5 percent. LeMahieu’s overall rate was 29.9 percent, and you can see that even on balls out of the zone he was still hitting line drives at a decent clip.