DataBaseball
2026
José Abreu headshot

1B · 2024

José Abreu

Age
37
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 3"
Weight
250 lb
Number
#79
Born
January 29, 1987 in Cienfuegos, Cuba
MLB debut
March 31, 2014
Salary, 2024
$19.5M
dbWAR
-1.4
1 season(s)
PA
120
AVG
.124
OBP
.167
SLG
.195
wRC+
-4
100 = avg

José Abreu is a first baseman for the Houston Astros. In 2024 he hit 2 home runs and knocked in 7 RBIs, notching 14 hits across 120 plate appearances in 34 games. His batting average was .124, 49.1% lower than the league average of .243. He reached base at a .167 clip and slugged .195, for an OPS of .361, 49.2% lower than the league mark of .711 — the worst on his team, and the worst among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 87.9 mph off the bat, hit 34.1% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 2.4% of them and made contact on 70.3% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his -4 wRC+ puts his offence 104% below average. That comes to -1.4 dbWAR — -14.6 runs with the bat, -0.1 on the bases, -2.5 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, 2024.

wRC+-4
wOBA.165
ISO.071
BB%3.3%
WAR-1.4

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2024. These four terms sum to -13.2 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-14.6Baserunning-0.1Position-2.5Replacement+4.0
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2024. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP37344025.118.189.176.17413.5%
vs RHP8379102223.127.157.203.16127.7%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2024.

Loading 86 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 85 tracked batted balls in 2024. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
2.4%
2 barrels
Exit velocity
87.9
mph average
Max exit velo
109.7
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
34.1%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
27.1%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
7.1°
average
Barrel rate2.4%
Exit velocity87.9 mph
Hard hit rate34.1%
Contact rate70.3%

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, 2024.

.0423 AB5 AB3 AB.40010 AB.16712 AB.0008 AB7 AB.18816 AB.10010 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 José Abreu 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 situations120.124.167.195.165
Bases empty6561522315.082.138.197.153
Runner on first · thin242360103.261.292.304.267
Runners on5552905113.173.200.192.178
RISP3129304110.103.129.103.109

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, 2024.

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
20243412014270428.124.167.195.071.1433.3%23.3%.165-14.6-4-1.4

Head to head

Put José Abreu beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
José Abreu

Similar players

Nearest 2024 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.