DataBaseball
2026
José Tena headshot

Players · T · DH · 2026

José Tena

Age
25
B/T
L/R
Height
5' 10"
Weight
195 lb
Number
#8
Born
March 20, 2001 in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic
MLB debut
August 5, 2023
dbWAR
.8
5 season(s)
PA
287
AVG
.223
OBP
.303
SLG
.371
wRC+
85
100 = avg

José Tena is a designated hitter for the Washington Nationals. So far in 2026 he has hit 7 home runs and knocked in 25 RBIs, notching 57 hits across 287 plate appearances in 112 games. His batting average is .223, 8.7% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .303 clip and slugged .371, for an OPS of .674, 6.2% lower than the league mark of .719 — 10th of 16 on his team, and 285th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 90.6 mph off the bat, hit 46.4% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 7.7% of them and made contact on 65.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 85 wRC+ puts his offence 15% below average. That comes to -0.1 dbWAR — -3.8 runs with the bat, -0.8 for the ballpark, +0.0 on the bases, -0.8 on double plays, -4.2 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+85
wOBA.303
ISO.148
BB%9.4%
WAR-.1

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to -0.6 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.

Batting-3.8Ballpark-0.8Baserunning+0.0Double plays-0.8Position-4.2Replacement+8.9
BattingBallparkBaserunningDouble playsPositionReplacement

WAR by season

0.40.2-0.123242526

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026WSH1122875772562789.223.303.371.148.3119.4%31.0%.303-3.885-0.1
2025WSH481693701631537.243.314.355.112.3198.9%21.9%.298-2.3880.4
2024WSH/CLE44168433156741.267.298.354.087.3424.2%24.4%.288-3.3840.4
2023CLE15347030313.226.294.290.065.3898.8%38.2%.267-1.5650.0

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026WSH101.000021019.006.103.000.09.0215146-0.0—

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 LHP20165037.313.450.500.42535.0%
vs RHP2672405272482.217.292.362.29330.7%
Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHB220000.000.000.000.0000.0%
vs RHB3220101.0001.0001.000.8370.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 168 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 168 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
7.7%
13 barrels
Exit velocity
90.6
mph average
Max exit velo
114.0
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
46.4%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
31.5%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
8.1°
average
Barrel rate7.7%
Exit velocity90.6 mph
Hard hit rate46.4%
Contact rate65.6%

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.

.167.133.143.094.30010 AB.40015 AB.2508 AB.22218 AB.27333 AB.39123 AB.25020 AB.29417 AB.10519 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 José Tena 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 situations287——————.223.303.371.303
Bases empty16314436661752.250.337.444.346
Runner on first5448803516.167.259.271.247
Runners on124112211191037.188.258.277.245
RISP706413116521.203.257.281.244

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

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter
Fastball

Select a count to see exactly what José Tena throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Fastball100.0%1138.99850.0%0.0%4——
José Tena'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. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

Head to head

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José Tena

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.