Players · K · DH · 2020 regular season

Howie Kendrick

Washington Nationals National League EastDH

Age: 37
B/T: R/R
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 225 lb

Born: July 12, 1983 in Jacksonville, FL, United States
MLB debut: April 26, 2006

dbWAR: 26.7
PA: 100
AVG: .275
OBP: .320
SLG: .385
wRC+: 86

Howie Kendrick was a designated hitter for the Washington Nationals. In 2020 he hit 2 home runs and knocked in 14 RBIs, notching 25 hits across 100 plate appearances in 25 games. His batting average was .275, 12.3% higher than the league average of .245. He reached base at a .320 clip and slugged .385, for an OPS of .705, 4.7% lower than the league mark of .740 — 6th of 12 on his team, and 197th of 310 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 88.8 mph off the bat, hit 39.5% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 6.6% of them and made contact on 79.3% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 86 wRC+ puts his offence 14% below average. That comes to -0.1 dbWAR — -2.0 runs with the bat, +0.1 for the ballpark, -0.1 on the bases, -0.7 on double plays, -2.0 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2020 regular season.

wRC+86

wOBA.299

ISO.110

BB%7.0%

WAR-.1

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2020. These terms sum to -1.4 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.

BattingBallparkBaserunningDouble playsPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Batting Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below.


2020	WSH	25	100	25	2	14	0	7	17	.275	.320	.385	.110	.311	7.0%	17.0%	.299	-2.0	86	-0.1
2019	WSH	121	370	115	17	62	2	27	49	.344	.395	.572	.228	.359	7.3%	13.2%	.403	+25.3	150	3.0
2018	WSH	40	160	46	4	12	1	5	29	.303	.331	.474	.171	.350	3.1%	18.1%	.345	+3.5	114	0.6
2017	WSH/PHI	91	334	96	9	41	12	22	68	.315	.368	.475	.161	.378	6.6%	20.4%	.365	+11.2	126	1.9
2016	LAD	146	543	124	8	40	10	50	96	.255	.326	.366	.111	.301	9.2%	17.7%	.306	-6.7	95	0.5
2015	LAD	117	495	137	9	54	6	27	82	.295	.336	.409	.114	.342	5.5%	16.6%	.328	+4.4	110	2.2
2014	LAA	157	674	181	7	75	14	48	110	.293	.347	.397	.104	.347	7.1%	16.3%	.331	+8.9	115	3.6
2013	LAA	122	513	142	13	54	6	23	89	.297	.335	.439	.142	.340	4.5%	17.3%	.339	+8.5	116	2.8
2012	LAA	145	594	158	8	67	14	29	115	.287	.325	.400	.113	.347	4.9%	19.4%	.319	+0.0	106	1.8
2011	LAA	140	583	153	18	63	14	33	119	.285	.338	.464	.179	.338	5.7%	20.4%	.355	+15.4	130	3.4
2010	LAA	157	658	172	10	75	14	28	94	.279	.313	.407	.128	.313	4.3%	14.3%	.320	-3.0	100	2.2
2009	LAA	104	400	109	10	61	11	20	71	.291	.334	.444	.152	.338	5.0%	17.8%	.344	+3.6	107	2.0
2008	LAA	91	361	104	3	37	11	12	58	.306	.333	.421	.115	.357	3.3%	16.1%	.331	-0.7	98	1.3
2007	LAA	88	353	109	5	39	5	9	61	.322	.347	.450	.127	.381	2.5%	17.3%	.350	+4.3	107	1.3
2006	LAA	70	283	76	4	30	6	9	44	.285	.314	.416	.131	.324	3.2%	15.5%	.317	-4.7	89	0.3

Separate from the regular season

Postseason Postseason

Wild Card through World Series. These games are counted on their own: none of them are in the regular-season tables, career totals, league context, leaderboards or dbWAR on this page.

Postseason batting

Postseason Howie Kendrick's postseason batting, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2019 Post	WSH	Postseason total	17	67	63	8	18	4	0	2	12	4	11	0	.286	.328	.444	.773
		Wild Card	1	3	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667
		NLDS	5	21	20	2	5	0	0	1	5	1	3	0	.250	.286	.400	.686
		NLCS	4	17	15	4	5	4	0	0	4	2	4	0	.333	.412	.600	1.012
		World Series	7	26	25	2	7	0	0	1	3	1	4	0	.280	.308	.400	.708
2017 Post	WSH	NLDS	3	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	.000	.333	.000	.333
2016 Post	LAD	Postseason total	9	23	22	2	5	2	0	0	0	1	4	1	.227	.261	.318	.579
		NLDS	4	10	9	1	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	.333	.400	.444	.844
		NLCS	5	13	13	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	3	1	.154	.154	.231	.385
2015 Post	LAD	NLDS	5	22	22	4	6	1	0	1	4	0	2	0	.273	.273	.455	.727
2014 Post	LAA	ALDS	3	13	13	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	5	0	.154	.154	.231	.385
2009 Post	LAA	Postseason total	6	20	19	4	5	0	1	1	1	1	3	1	.263	.300	.526	.826
		ALDS	2	5	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	.200	.200	.200	.400
		ALCS	4	15	14	3	4	0	1	1	1	1	1	0	.286	.333	.643	.976
2008 Post	LAA	ALDS	4	19	17	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	7	0	.118	.118	.118	.235
2007 Post	LAA	ALDS	3	11	10	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	2	.200	.182	.200	.382
Career		Postseason total · 8 Octobers	50	178	168	19	40	8	1	4	18	7	34	4	.238	.267	.369	.636

Box-score and rate statistics only. wOBA, wRC+, FIP and dbWAR are measured against a full league season, and a postseason is a few teams playing each other for a month, so they are not computed for October.

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Season

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2020. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	26	25	5	2	1	3	.200	.231	.440	.280	11.5%
vs RHP	74	66	20	0	6	14	.303	.351	.364	.306	18.9%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2020.

Loading 76 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 76 tracked batted balls in 2020. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 6.6%
Exit velocity: 88.8
Max exit velo: 109.6
Hard hit: 39.5%
Sweet spot: 40.8%
Launch angle: 7.3°

Barrel rate6.6%

Exit velocity88.8 mph

Hard hit rate39.5%

Contact rate79.3%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2020.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .244.

Situational hitting

How Howie Kendrick hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by

By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	100	—	—	—	—	—	—	.275	.320	.385	.299
Bases empty	46	45	16	2	2	1	9	.356	.370	.511	.378
Runner on first · thin	22	20	5	0	4	2	5	.250	.318	.400	.315
Runners on	54	46	9	0	12	6	8	.196	.278	.261	.229
RISP	32	26	4	0	8	4	3	.154	.250	.154	.166

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2020.

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Howie Kendrick

Similar players

Nearest 2020 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Nick MarkakisATL

wRC+: 90
HR: 1
AVG: .254
WAR: 0.2

Very close

Tommy EdmanSTL

wRC+: 88
HR: 5
AVG: .250
WAR: 0.4

Very close

Carlos CorreaHOU

wRC+: 94
HR: 5
AVG: .264
WAR: 0.9

Very close

Josh ReddickHOU

wRC+: 92
HR: 4
AVG: .245
WAR: 0.1

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.