DataBaseball
2026
Mike Zunino headshot

C · 2023

Mike Zunino

Age
32
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 2"
Weight
235 lb
Number
#3
Born
March 25, 1991 in Cape Coral, FL, USA
MLB debut
June 12, 2013
dbWAR
8.3
9 season(s)
PA
140
AVG
.177
OBP
.271
SLG
.306
wRC+
62
100 = avg

Mike Zunino is a catcher for the Cleveland Guardians. In 2023 he hit 3 home runs and knocked in 11 RBIs, notching 22 hits across 140 plate appearances in 41 games. His batting average was .177, 28.6% lower than the league average of .248. He reached base at a .271 clip and slugged .306, for an OPS of .578, 21.3% lower than the league mark of .734 — 14th of 16 on his team, and 415th of 461 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 85.9 mph off the bat, hit 34.9% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 7.9% of them and made contact on 57.2% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 62 wRC+ puts his offence 38% below average. That comes to 0.1 dbWAR — -6.8 runs with the bat, -0.2 on the bases, +2.9 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+62
wOBA.262
ISO.129
BB%10.7%
WAR.1

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2023. These four terms sum to +0.6 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-6.8Baserunning-0.2Position+2.9Replacement+4.7
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

3.51.5-0.5151617181920212223

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2023411402231101561.177.271.306.129.31710.7%43.6%.262-6.8620.1
202236123175160646.148.195.304.157.1854.9%37.4%.220-9.136-0.3
2021105375723362034132.216.301.559.342.2319.1%35.2%.361+13.71393.3
20202884114100637.147.238.360.213.2067.1%44.0%.262-4.3600.0
2019842894493202098.165.232.312.147.2206.9%33.9%.238-21.043-0.5
2018109405752044024150.201.259.410.209.2685.9%37.0%.290-9.1841.3
2017116435972564139160.251.331.509.258.3559.0%36.8%.359+12.61273.5
20165419234123102165.207.318.470.262.25010.9%33.9%.343+3.31171.4
2015106386611128021132.174.230.300.126.2395.4%34.2%.238-24.146-0.4

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

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.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP423591719.257.381.400.35245.2%
vs RHP9889132842.146.224.270.22442.9%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2023.

Loading 63 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 63 tracked batted balls in 2023. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
7.9%
5 barrels
Exit velocity
85.9
mph average
Max exit velo
111.2
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
34.9%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
28.6%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
15.1°
average
Barrel rate7.9%
Exit velocity85.9 mph
Hard hit rate34.9%
Contact rate57.2%

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.

.0566 AB.1258 AB.10010 AB.4449 AB.20015 AB.27311 AB.1258 AB.54511 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 .248.

Situational hitting

How Mike Zunino 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 situations140.177.271.306.262
Bases empty79701512929.214.304.329.286
Runner on first2926200217.077.172.115.148
Runners on6154729632.130.230.278.232
RISP3228529415.179.281.429.307

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

Head to head

Put Mike Zunino beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Mike Zunino

Similar players

Nearest 2023 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.