DH · 2023

AJ Pollock

Age: 36
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 210 lb
Number: #11

Born: December 5, 1987 in Hebron, CT, USA
MLB debut: April 18, 2012

dbWAR: 17.4
PA: 144
AVG: .165
OBP: .215
SLG: .308
wRC+: 38

AJ Pollock is a designated hitter for the Seattle Mariners. In 2023 he hit 5 home runs and knocked in 15 RBIs, notching 22 hits across 144 plate appearances in 50 games. His batting average was .165, 33.4% lower than the league average of .248. He reached base at a .215 clip and slugged .308, for an OPS of .524, 28.7% lower than the league mark of .734 — the second worst on his team, and 447th of 461 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 89.4 mph off the bat, hit 41.7% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 5.8% of them and made contact on 74.2% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 38 wRC+ puts his offence 62% below average. That comes to -1.0 dbWAR — -11.1 runs with the bat, -0.6 on the bases, -3.0 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, 2023.

wRC+38

wOBA.228

ISO.143

BB%6.3%

WAR-1.0

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2023. These four terms sum to -9.9 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2023	50	144	22	5	15	0	9	32	.165	.215	.308	.143	.173	6.3%	22.2%	.228	-11.1	38	-1.0
2022	131	527	120	14	56	3	32	98	.245	.292	.389	.143	.278	6.1%	18.6%	.299	-5.4	88	0.7
2021	116	422	114	21	69	9	30	80	.297	.355	.536	.240	.326	7.1%	19.0%	.377	+21.1	143	3.1
2020	55	210	54	16	34	2	12	45	.276	.314	.566	.291	.277	5.7%	21.4%	.364	+7.6	130	1.1
2019	86	342	82	15	47	5	23	74	.266	.327	.468	.201	.300	6.7%	21.6%	.335	+3.7	112	1.4
2018	113	460	106	21	65	13	31	100	.257	.316	.484	.228	.284	6.7%	21.7%	.342	+8.9	115	2.8
2017	112	466	113	14	49	20	35	71	.266	.330	.471	.205	.291	7.5%	15.2%	.345	+8.0	108	2.6
2016	11	46	10	2	4	4	5	8	.244	.326	.390	.146	.258	10.9%	17.4%	.319	-0.1	92	0.2
2015	156	673	192	20	76	39	53	89	.315	.367	.498	.182	.338	7.9%	13.2%	.375	+31.0	138	6.4

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Season

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2023. 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	80	74	10	1	5	16	.135	.188	.176	.168	20.0%
vs RHP	64	59	12	4	4	16	.203	.250	.475	.303	25.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2023.

Loading 102 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 103 tracked batted balls in 2023. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 5.8%
Exit velocity: 89.4
Max exit velo: 108.1
Hard hit: 41.7%
Sweet spot: 24.3%
Launch angle: 13.0°

Barrel rate5.8%

Exit velocity89.4 mph

Hard hit rate41.7%

Contact rate74.2%

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.

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 .248.

Situational hitting

How AJ Pollock 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	144	—	—	—	—	—	—	.165	.215	.308	.228
Bases empty	79	75	8	2	2	4	20	.107	.152	.213	.163
Runner on first	32	30	8	3	6	2	6	.267	.313	.600	.380
Runners on	65	58	14	3	13	5	12	.241	.292	.431	.307
RISP	33	28	6	0	7	3	6	.214	.273	.250	.236

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2023.

Head to head

Put AJ Pollock beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players

AJ Pollock

Similar players

Nearest 2023 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Lenyn SosaCWS

wRC+: 46
HR: 6
AVG: .201
WAR: -0.5

Comparable

David VillarSF

wRC+: 51
HR: 5
AVG: .145
WAR: -0.5

Comparable

Gavin SheetsCWS

wRC+: 60
HR: 10
AVG: .203
WAR: -1.1

Comparable

Michael TogliaCOL

wRC+: 32
HR: 4
AVG: .163
WAR: -1.0

Comparable

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.