DataBaseball
2026
Nick Loftin headshot

3B · 2026

Nick Loftin

Age
28
B/T
R/R
Height
5' 11"
Weight
180 lb
Number
#12
Born
September 25, 1998 in Corpus Christi, TX, USA
MLB debut
September 1, 2023
Drafted
2020, round CB-A
College
Baylor
dbWAR
.5
4 season(s)
PA
283
AVG
.243
OBP
.326
SLG
.391
wRC+
99
100 = avg

Nick Loftin is a third baseman for the Kansas City Royals. In 2026 he hit 5 home runs and knocked in 35 RBIs, notching 59 hits across 283 plate appearances in 81 games. His batting average was .243, level with the league average of .244. He reached base at a .326 clip and slugged .391, for an OPS of .717, level with the league mark of .719 — 5th of 12 on his team, and 192nd of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 84.7 mph off the bat, hit 28.6% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 3.8% of them and made contact on 84.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 99 wRC+ puts his offence 1% below average. That comes to 1.0 dbWAR — +0.4 runs with the bat, -0.2 on the bases, +0.7 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, 2026.

wRC+99
wOBA.320
ISO.148
BB%9.5%
WAR1.0

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +10.4 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting+0.4Baserunning-0.2Position+0.7Replacement+9.4
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

1.00.3-0.4242526

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 LHP117982711317.276.362.388.33714.5%
vs RHP1661453241424.221.301.393.30814.5%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 209 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 210 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
3.8%
8 barrels
Exit velocity
84.7
mph average
Max exit velo
110.8
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
28.6%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
35.7%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
11.6°
average
Barrel rate3.8%
Exit velocity84.7 mph
Hard hit rate28.6%
Contact rate84.6%

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.

.000.167.190.105.23517 AB.26926 AB.1119 AB.27322 AB.36641 AB.26319 AB.40010 AB.28614 AB.20025 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 Nick Loftin 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 situations283.243.326.391.320
Bases empty15613833221723.239.327.377.317
Runner on first5548925311.188.264.375.285
Runners on127105263331018.248.325.410.323
RISP72571712877.298.371.439.353

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
2026812835953512741.243.326.391.148.2699.5%14.5%.320+0.4991.0
2025661883542011427.208.278.357.149.2237.4%14.4%.280-5.478-0.1
2024541712811411924.189.282.236.047.21611.1%14.0%.245-9.451-0.4

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2024101.000010000.003.171.000.00.00780.0

Head to head

Put Nick Loftin beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Nick Loftin

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.