Players · P · 2B · 2026
Richie Palacios
- Age
- 29
- B/T
- L/R
- Height
- 5' 8"
- Weight
- 185 lb
- Number
- #1
- Born
- May 16, 1997 in Brooklyn, NY, United States
- MLB debut
- April 25, 2022
- Drafted
- 2018, round 3
- College
- Towson
- Salary, 2026
- $945,000
- dbWAR
- 3.6 5 season(s)
- PA
- 390
- AVG
- .234
- OBP
- .330
- SLG
- .374
- wRC+
- 100 100 = avg
Richie Palacios is a second baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays. So far in 2026 he has hit 10 home runs and knocked in 53 RBIs, notching 79 hits across 390 plate appearances in 120 games. His batting average is .234, 3.9% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .330 clip and slugged .374, for an OPS of .704, 2.1% lower than the league mark of .719 — 7th of 13 on his team, and 230th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 85.1 mph off the bat, hit 29.3% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 3.3% of them and made contact on 79.0% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 100 wRC+ puts his offence 0% below average. That comes to 1.7 dbWAR — +0.1 runs with the bat, -0.1 for the ballpark, -0.1 on the bases, +1.1 on double plays, +3.1 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 +16.2 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 | TB | 120 | 390 | 79 | 10 | 53 | 17 | 45 | 67 | .234 | .330 | .374 | .139 | .263 | 11.5% | 17.2% | .319 | +0.1 | 100 | 1.7 | |
| 2025 | TB | 16 | 48 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 9 | .333 | .396 | .452 | .119 | .394 | 10.4% | 18.8% | .372 | +2.3 | 139 | 0.3 | |
| 2024 | TB | 90 | 316 | 59 | 5 | 21 | 19 | 45 | 67 | .223 | .346 | .318 | .095 | .280 | 14.2% | 21.2% | .307 | -1.4 | 96 | 1.2 | |
| 2023 | STL | 32 | 102 | 24 | 6 | 16 | 2 | 6 | 11 | .258 | .307 | .516 | .258 | .234 | 5.9% | 10.8% | .347 | +2.3 | 116 | 0.7 | |
| 2022 | CLE | 53 | 123 | 26 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 9 | 20 | .232 | .293 | .286 | .054 | .280 | 7.3% | 16.3% | .260 | -5.1 | 65 | -0.3 |
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 61 | 55 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 12 | .164 | .246 | .236 | .228 | 19.7% |
| vs RHP | 329 | 282 | 70 | 10 | 40 | 55 | .248 | .346 | .401 | .336 | 16.7% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 272 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 270 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 3.3% 9 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 85.1 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 106.9 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 29.3% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 34.1% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 12.7° 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 Richie Palacios 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 | 390 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .234 | .330 | .374 | .319 |
| Bases empty | 212 | 184 | 39 | 5 | 6 | 27 | 39 | .212 | .316 | .332 | .299 |
| Runner on first | 58 | 49 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 5 | .204 | .328 | .327 | .305 |
| Runners on | 178 | 153 | 40 | 5 | 47 | 18 | 28 | .261 | .347 | .425 | .343 |
| RISP | 120 | 104 | 30 | 4 | 43 | 9 | 23 | .288 | .356 | .471 | .362 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Head to head
Put Richie Palacios beside up to three others.
Or read one already written — Richie Palacios 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.