DataBaseball
2026
Leo Bernal headshot

Players · B · C · 2026

Leo Bernal

Age
22
B/T
S/R
Height
6' 0"
Weight
245 lb
Number
#13
Born
February 13, 2004 in Panama City, Panama
MLB debut
September 1, 2026
dbWAR
.6
1 season(s)
PA
75
AVG
.310
OBP
.347
SLG
.479
wRC+
135
100 = avg

Leo Bernal is a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. So far in 2026 he has hit 3 home runs and knocked in 15 RBIs, notching 22 hits across 75 plate appearances in 17 games. His batting average is .310, 26.9% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .347 clip and slugged .479, for an OPS of .826, 14.7% higher than the league mark of .720. He averaged 93.8 mph off the bat, hit 62.5% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 7.1% of them and made contact on 77.9% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 135 wRC+ puts his offence 35% above average. That comes to 0.6 dbWAR — +2.6 runs with the bat, +0.2 for the ballpark, -0.5 on the bases, -0.1 on double plays, +1.1 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.

wRC+135
wOBA.360
ISO.169
BB%5.3%
WAR.6

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to +5.6 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.

Batting+2.6Ballpark+0.2Baserunning-0.5Double plays-0.1Position+1.1Replacement+2.3
BattingBallparkBaserunningDouble playsPositionReplacement

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026STL1775223150415.310.347.479.169.3585.3%20.0%.360+2.61350.6

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 LHP22227006.318.318.364.30127.3%
vs RHP534915349.306.358.531.38517.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 56 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 56 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
7.1%
4 barrels
Exit velocity
93.8
mph average
Max exit velo
109.8
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
62.5%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
42.9%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
14.3°
average
Barrel rate7.1%
Exit velocity93.8 mph
Hard hit rate62.5%
Contact rate77.9%

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.

.3757 AB.5569 AB4 AB.3339 AB4 AB4 AB.08312 AB7 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 .244.

Situational hitting

How Leo Bernal 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 situations75.310.347.479.360
Bases empty4542911311.214.267.333.268
Runner on first · thin8740011.571.625.714.583
Runners on30291321414.448.467.690.499
RISP · thin2222921403.409.409.682.468

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Head to head

Put Leo Bernal beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Leo Bernal
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.