Players · W · LF · 2026
Taylor Ward
- Age
- 33
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 6' 0"
- Weight
- 205 lb
- Number
- #27
- Born
- December 14, 1993 in Dayton, OH, United States
- MLB debut
- August 14, 2018
- Drafted
- 2012, round 31
- College
- Fresno State
- High school
- Shadow Hills
- Salary, 2026
- $12.2M
- dbWAR
- 11.7 9 season(s)
- PA
- 606
- AVG
- .223
- OBP
- .358
- SLG
- .310
- wRC+
- 101 100 = avg
Taylor Ward is a left fielder for the Baltimore Orioles. So far in 2026 he has hit 7 home runs and knocked in 35 RBIs, notching 111 hits across 606 plate appearances in 142 games. His batting average is .223, 8.4% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .358 clip and slugged .310, for an OPS of .668, 7.0% lower than the league mark of .719 — 11th of 14 on his team, and 297th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 88.7 mph off the bat, hit 38.3% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 4.3% of them and made contact on 80.5% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 101 wRC+ puts his offence 1% above average. That comes to 1.1 dbWAR — -1.4 runs with the bat, +1.1 for the ballpark, -1.9 on the bases, +1.1 on double plays, -6.9 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, 2026.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to +10.7 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.
WAR by season
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | BAL/SEA | 142 | 606 | 111 | 7 | 35 | 4 | 99 | 130 | .223 | .358 | .310 | .087 | .287 | 16.3% | 21.5% | .316 | -1.4 | 101 | 1.1 | |
| 2025 | LAA | 157 | 663 | 132 | 36 | 103 | 4 | 75 | 175 | .228 | .317 | .475 | .247 | .257 | 11.3% | 26.4% | .341 | +14.0 | 117 | 2.8 | |
| 2024 | LAA | 156 | 663 | 144 | 25 | 75 | 6 | 63 | 163 | .246 | .323 | .426 | .179 | .294 | 9.5% | 24.6% | .328 | +8.4 | 110 | 2.0 | |
| 2023 | LAA | 97 | 409 | 90 | 14 | 47 | 4 | 39 | 80 | .253 | .335 | .421 | .169 | .284 | 9.5% | 19.6% | .331 | +3.6 | 108 | 1.2 | |
| 2022 | LAA | 135 | 564 | 139 | 23 | 65 | 5 | 60 | 120 | .281 | .360 | .473 | .192 | .325 | 10.6% | 21.3% | .364 | +23.8 | 134 | 3.7 | |
| 2021 | LAA | 62 | 237 | 52 | 8 | 33 | 1 | 20 | 55 | .250 | .332 | .438 | .188 | .301 | 8.4% | 23.2% | .337 | +3.9 | 112 | 0.8 | |
| 2020 | LAA | 30 | 102 | 26 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 28 | .277 | .333 | .383 | .106 | .394 | 7.8% | 27.5% | .317 | -0.4 | 94 | 0.3 | |
| 2019 | LAA | 18 | 48 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 23 | .190 | .292 | .333 | .143 | .389 | 12.5% | 47.9% | .278 | -1.8 | 69 | -0.1 | |
| 2018 | LAA | 40 | 147 | 24 | 6 | 15 | 2 | 9 | 45 | .178 | .245 | .333 | .156 | .214 | 6.1% | 30.6% | .257 | -7.3 | 58 | -0.1 |
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 193 | 157 | 34 | 4 | 34 | 41 | .217 | .352 | .338 | .318 | 21.2% |
| vs RHP | 413 | 340 | 77 | 3 | 65 | 89 | .226 | .361 | .297 | .315 | 21.5% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 369 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 368 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 4.3% 16 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 88.7 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 109.5 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 38.3% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 37.2% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 14.8° average
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, 2026.
Situational hitting
How Taylor Ward hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 606 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .223 | .358 | .310 | .316 |
| Bases empty | 386 | 316 | 75 | 4 | 4 | 64 | 83 | .237 | .376 | .323 | .330 |
| Runner on first | 116 | 101 | 20 | 0 | 3 | 15 | 29 | .198 | .302 | .238 | .260 |
| Runners on | 220 | 181 | 36 | 3 | 31 | 35 | 47 | .199 | .327 | .287 | .290 |
| RISP | 104 | 80 | 16 | 3 | 28 | 20 | 18 | .200 | .356 | .350 | .323 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Head to head
Put Taylor Ward beside up to three others.
Or read one already written — Taylor Ward against:
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
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.