DataBaseball
2026
Adam Eaton headshot

RF · 2021

Adam Eaton

Age
33
B/T
L/L
Height
5' 9"
Weight
180 lb
Number
#12
Born
December 6, 1988 in Springfield, OH, USA
MLB debut
September 4, 2012
dbWAR
12.8
8 season(s)
PA
288
AVG
.201
OBP
.282
SLG
.327
wRC+
70
100 = avg

Adam Eaton is a right fielder for the Chicago White Sox. In 2021 he hit 6 home runs and knocked in 30 RBIs, notching 51 hits across 288 plate appearances in 78 games. His batting average was .201, 17.6% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .282 clip and slugged .327, for an OPS of .608, 16.4% lower than the league mark of .728 — the second worst on his team, and 402nd of 463 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 84.4 mph off the bat, hit 34.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 3.7% of them and made contact on 76.3% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 70 wRC+ puts his offence 30% below average. That comes to -0.4 dbWAR — -10.5 runs with the bat, +0.4 on the bases, -3.7 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+70
wOBA.274
ISO.126
BB%7.6%
WAR-.4

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2021. These four terms sum to -4.2 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-10.5Baserunning+0.4Position-3.7Replacement+9.6
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

4.62.1-0.415161718192021

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2021782885163032271.201.282.327.126.2537.6%24.7%.274-10.570-0.4
2020411763641731232.226.285.384.157.2606.8%18.2%.289-4.979-0.1
201915165615815491565106.279.365.428.148.3199.9%16.2%.345+12.41122.5
2018943709653393864.301.394.411.110.36410.3%17.3%.361+12.91252.1
2017231072721331418.297.393.462.165.34713.1%16.8%.374+4.41320.8
201615570617614591463115.284.362.428.144.3298.9%16.3%.347+14.21203.2
201515368917514561858131.287.361.431.144.3458.4%19.0%.350+18.31274.6

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2021101.000020000.003.172.000.00.00740.0

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 LHP494580311.178.224.222.20322.4%
vs RHP2392094361960.206.294.349.28925.1%
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 LHB331000.333.333.333.2920.0%
vs RHB221000.500.500.500.4380.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2021.

Loading 188 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 188 tracked batted balls in 2021. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
3.7%
7 barrels
Exit velocity
84.4
mph average
Max exit velo
107.4
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
34.0%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
30.3%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
6.8°
average
Barrel rate3.7%
Exit velocity84.4 mph
Hard hit rate34.0%
Contact rate76.3%

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, 2021.

.250.154.211.054.07713 AB.30813 AB.18211 AB.21723 AB.28621 AB.25016 AB.23517 AB.20729 AB.31316 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 Adam Eaton 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 situations288.201.282.327.274
Bases empty15513823111443.167.258.225.229
Runner on first73651349517.200.288.415.308
Runners on13311628529828.241.310.448.328
RISP605115120311.294.339.490.353

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

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter
Four-seam

Select a count to see exactly what Adam Eaton throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Four-Seam Fastball66.7%1487.62,07442.9%12.5%
Adam Eaton'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 Adam Eaton beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Adam Eaton

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.