DH · 2023
Nelson Cruz
- Age
- 43
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 6' 2"
- Weight
- 230 lb
- Number
- #23
- Born
- July 1, 1980 in Las Matas de Santa Cruz, Dominican Republic
- MLB debut
- September 17, 2005
- dbWAR
- 22.5 9 season(s)
- PA
- 152
- AVG
- .245
- OBP
- .283
- SLG
- .399
- wRC+
- 83 100 = avg
Nelson Cruz is a designated hitter for the San Diego Padres. In 2023 he hit 5 home runs and knocked in 23 RBIs, notching 35 hits across 152 plate appearances in 49 games. His batting average was .245, 1.5% lower than the league average of .248. He reached base at a .283 clip and slugged .399, for an OPS of .681, 7.2% lower than the league mark of .734 — 10th of 15 on his team, and 289th of 461 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 92.5 mph off the bat, hit 48.5% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 8.2% of them and made contact on 63.9% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 83 wRC+ puts his offence 17% below average. That comes to -0.3 dbWAR — -3.6 runs with the bat, -0.0 on the bases, -4.4 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, 2023.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2023. These four terms sum to -3.0 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.
WAR by season
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 49 | 152 | 35 | 5 | 23 | 1 | 6 | 46 | .245 | .283 | .399 | .154 | .323 | 3.9% | 30.3% | .292 | -3.6 | 83 | -0.3 | |
| 2022 | 124 | 507 | 105 | 10 | 64 | 4 | 49 | 119 | .234 | .313 | .337 | .103 | .295 | 9.7% | 23.5% | .294 | -7.3 | 87 | -0.5 | |
| 2021 | 140 | 584 | 136 | 32 | 86 | 3 | 51 | 126 | .265 | .334 | .497 | .232 | .286 | 8.7% | 21.6% | .348 | +15.1 | 122 | 1.8 | |
| 2020 | 53 | 214 | 56 | 16 | 33 | 0 | 25 | 58 | .303 | .397 | .595 | .292 | .360 | 11.7% | 27.1% | .413 | +16.6 | 163 | 1.7 | |
| 2019 | 120 | 521 | 141 | 41 | 108 | 0 | 56 | 131 | .311 | .392 | .639 | .328 | .351 | 10.7% | 25.1% | .421 | +43.7 | 168 | 4.2 | |
| 2018 | 144 | 591 | 133 | 37 | 97 | 1 | 55 | 122 | .256 | .342 | .509 | .252 | .264 | 9.3% | 20.6% | .364 | +21.9 | 138 | 2.5 | |
| 2017 | 155 | 645 | 160 | 39 | 119 | 1 | 70 | 140 | .288 | .375 | .549 | .261 | .315 | 10.9% | 21.7% | .389 | +34.6 | 148 | 3.6 | |
| 2016 | 155 | 667 | 169 | 43 | 105 | 2 | 62 | 159 | .287 | .360 | .555 | .268 | .320 | 9.3% | 23.8% | .389 | +35.6 | 148 | 4.2 | |
| 2015 | 152 | 655 | 178 | 44 | 93 | 3 | 59 | 164 | .302 | .369 | .566 | .264 | .350 | 9.0% | 25.0% | .400 | +43.3 | 165 | 5.4 |
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 89 | 83 | 20 | 3 | 4 | 29 | .241 | .281 | .386 | .284 | 32.6% |
| vs RHP | 63 | 60 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 17 | .250 | .286 | .417 | .303 | 27.0% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2023.
Loading 98 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 97 tracked batted balls in 2023. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 8.2% 8 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 92.5 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 112.5 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 48.5% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 36.1% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 10.6° average
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, 2023.
Situational hitting
How Nelson Cruz hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 152 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .245 | .283 | .399 | .292 |
| Bases empty | 79 | 73 | 15 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 21 | .205 | .266 | .425 | .297 |
| Runner on first | 30 | 30 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | .267 | .267 | .267 | .236 |
| Runners on | 73 | 70 | 20 | 1 | 19 | 2 | 25 | .286 | .301 | .371 | .286 |
| RISP | 43 | 40 | 12 | 1 | 19 | 2 | 15 | .300 | .326 | .450 | .323 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2023.
Head to head
Put Nelson Cruz beside up to three others.
Similar players
Nearest 2023 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
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.