DataBaseball
2026
Mitch Moreland headshot

DH · 2021

Mitch Moreland

Age
36
B/T
L/L
Height
6' 3"
Weight
245 lb
Born
September 6, 1985 in Amory, MS, USA
MLB debut
July 29, 2010
dbWAR
6.0
9 season(s)
PA
252
AVG
.227
OBP
.286
SLG
.415
wRC+
93
100 = avg

Mitch Moreland is a designated hitter for the Oakland Athletics. In 2021 he hit 10 home runs and knocked in 30 RBIs, notching 52 hits across 252 plate appearances in 80 games. His batting average was .227, 6.9% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .286 clip and slugged .415, for an OPS of .701, 3.8% lower than the league mark of .728 — 10th of 12 on his team, and 268th of 463 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 91.0 mph off the bat, hit 47.7% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 8.6% of them and made contact on 69.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 93 wRC+ puts his offence 7% below average. That comes to -0.2 dbWAR — -3.2 runs with the bat, -0.2 on the bases, -7.0 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, 2021.

wRC+93
wOBA.302
ISO.188
BB%7.1%
WAR-.2

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2021. These four terms sum to -2.0 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-3.2Baserunning-0.2Position-7.0Replacement+8.4
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

2.11.0-0.215161718192021

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
20218025252103001858.227.286.415.188.2567.1%23.0%.302-3.293-0.2
20204215236102901532.265.342.551.287.2779.9%21.1%.373+6.61300.8
20199133575195813474.252.328.507.255.27110.1%22.1%.350+7.91171.1
2018120459991568250102.245.325.433.188.28810.9%22.2%.330+4.41061.0
20171485761252279057120.246.326.443.197.2789.9%20.8%.330+2.51030.9
20161405031072260135118.233.298.422.189.2667.0%23.5%.311-4.1890.2
20151325151312385132112.278.330.482.204.3176.2%21.7%.351+14.11192.1

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2021101.000010100.001.171.009.00.00270.0
2017101.000020100.001.162.009.00.00270.0

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2021. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP443962414.154.227.333.24431.8%
vs RHP2081904681444.242.298.432.31421.2%
Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2021. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHB220001.000.000.000.00050.0%
vs RHB221000.500.500.500.4380.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2021.

Loading 174 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 174 tracked batted balls in 2021. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
8.6%
15 barrels
Exit velocity
91.0
mph average
Max exit velo
112.2
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
47.7%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
32.2%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
12.9°
average
Barrel rate8.6%
Exit velocity91.0 mph
Hard hit rate47.7%
Contact rate69.6%

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, 2021.

.222.111.0003 AB.18816 AB6 AB.34626 AB.26730 AB.14321 AB.24025 AB.46428 AB.14314 AB
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 .243.

Situational hitting

How Mitch Moreland 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.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations252.227.286.415.302
Bases empty14813633771035.243.304.471.332
Runner on first4340725310.175.233.375.262
Runners on1049319323823.204.260.333.258
RISP615312118513.226.279.302.256

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2021.

Pitch sequencing

What Mitch Moreland throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter
FastballChangeup

Select a count to see exactly what Mitch Moreland throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2021.

Fastball76.5%1387.12,16461.5%16.7%
Mitch Moreland's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters.

Head to head

Put Mitch Moreland beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Mitch Moreland

Similar players

Nearest 2021 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

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.