The three Colorado Rockies that Statcast did not like on offense in 2020

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The rather surprising Rockies player

Heading into 2020, some people probably would have guessed this Rockies player would be a part of this list if he got a vast majority of the playing time but even that wasn’t a guarantee heading into 2020 or even a few weeks into the 2020 season. That player is Raimel Tapia.

Tapia had a good season based on his batting average and on-base percentage but the more advanced numbers show some things that could be problematic.

First off, since he started starting for the Rockies full-time (August 11), he hit .339 with an on-base percentage of .389, both of which are phenomenal. His slugging percentage leaves a bit to be desired, though, as it was just .429, an indication of all but 11 of hits 57 hits in that span being singles.

More problematic, though, is his BABIP (batting average on balls in play). League average is usally around .300 but Tapia’s was very high: .406. That indicates that Tapia was a beneficiary of some good luck.

That and his lack of power are also shown from the three numbers on Statcast that he was in the bottom 10 percent in: barrel percentage, exit velocity, and expected slugging percentage (xSLG).

His barrel percentage was only 2.0%, which was in the bottom six percent (average barrel percentage was 6.4%), his average exit velocity was 85.3 MPH, which was also in the bottom six percent (average was 88.3 MPH), and his expected slugging percentage was .330, which is in the bottom seven percent (league average was .414).

For better or worse, the Rockies will likely rely on Tapia in their outfield more often in 2021. They will need him and others to keep up and/or put up better numbers to try to put themselves back into contention.