DataBaseball
2026
Tyler Stephenson headshot

C · 2026

Tyler Stephenson

Age
30
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 3"
Weight
225 lb
Number
#37
Born
August 16, 1996 in Atlanta, GA, USA
MLB debut
July 27, 2020
Drafted
2015, round 1
High school
Kennesaw Mountain
Salary, 2026
$6.8M
dbWAR
7.4
3 season(s)
PA
320
AVG
.248
OBP
.331
SLG
.411
wRC+
108
100 = avg

Tyler Stephenson is a catcher for the Cincinnati Reds. In 2026 he hit 10 home runs and knocked in 33 RBIs, notching 70 hits across 320 plate appearances in 87 games. His batting average was .248, 1.9% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .331 clip and slugged .411, for an OPS of .743, 3.2% higher than the league mark of .719 — 5th of 15 on his team, and 141st of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 91.2 mph off the bat, hit 47.2% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 11.2% of them and made contact on 74.7% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 108 wRC+ puts his offence 8% above average. That comes to 1.9 dbWAR — +2.8 runs with the bat, -0.9 on the bases, +6.6 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.

wRC+108
wOBA.329
ISO.163
BB%10.9%
WAR1.9

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +19.2 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting+2.8Baserunning-0.9Position+6.6Replacement+10.7
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

3.91.90.0242526

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP71551001613.182.366.236.29818.3%
vs RHP24922760101969.264.321.454.33727.7%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 202 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 197 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
11.2%
22 barrels
Exit velocity
91.2
mph average
Max exit velo
108.5
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
47.2%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
43.1%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
17.8°
average
Barrel rate11.2%
Exit velocity91.2 mph
Hard hit rate47.2%
Contact rate74.7%

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.

.100.100.091.000.18211 AB.25016 AB.23517 AB.42326 AB.26549 AB.32331 AB.18816 AB.41736 AB.19226 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 Tyler Stephenson 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 situations320.248.331.411.329
Bases empty17716039551741.244.316.388.314
Runner on first75671829820.269.347.433.346
Runners on143122315281841.254.350.443.347
RISP6855133191021.236.353.455.348

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
20268732070103303582.248.331.411.163.31310.9%25.6%.329+2.81081.9
202588342691350037116.231.316.421.191.32210.8%33.9%.322+1.91051.6
20241365151181966148117.258.338.444.186.3079.3%22.7%.341+12.41163.9

Head to head

Put Tyler Stephenson beside up to three others.

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Tyler Stephenson

Similar players

Nearest 2026 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.