What’s Gotten Into Geraldo Perdomo?

When the Diamondbacks signed Geraldo Perdomo to a four-year contract extension this previous offseason, I understood why they wished to maintain him round. In a sport with loads of jerks and grouches and hard hangs, Perdomo’s teammates say he’s a delight to be round. He’s Mr. “Say Hello to the Spouse and Youngsters,” even when he’s not excellent at discovering your spouse and children within the stands.

However by way of on-field manufacturing, I had my doubts. Perdomo was a median hitter in 2023 and 2024, and a reliable defensive shortstop. He’d take a stroll, however he wouldn’t hit for a lot energy. He’s a terrific bunter, but when bunting is that this excessive on a listing of a participant’s optimistic attributes, you begin to fear he can’t do a lot else together with his bat. Is a gentle two-win participant actually the man the Diamondbacks wanted to lock up, with Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly and Josh Naylor all in contract years? Particularly with Jordan Lawlar on the verge of main league common standing?

What a idiot I used to be to doubt Perdomo. He’s hitting .306/.402/.488 via 49 video games. He’s already set a brand new profession excessive in WAR (2.8, fifth amongst all place gamers) and tied his earlier profession excessive in residence runs with six. Perdomo can also be strolling greater than he strikes out; he’s good in 11 stolen base makes an attempt, and his high quality of contact is thru the roof.

So what the heck has gotten into Geraldo Perdomo?

Perdomo has all the time had good contact abilities and good plate self-discipline, however he’s additionally a kind of switch-hitters who’s fully totally different relying on which facet of the plate he’s hitting from:

From the left facet, he’s all the time put the ball within the air and brought extra of an influence strategy. From the fitting facet, it’s extra ground-and-pound. This 12 months, he’s slashed his groundball price and — better of all — changed nearly all of these grounders with line drives. If a hitter will increase his line drive price from 18% to twenty-eight%, one shouldn’t be shocked if his wRC+ additionally goes up 50 factors or so.

Perdomo can also be swinging the bat tougher, particularly from the fitting facet, the place his common bat velocity has gone from 67.4 mph to 69.4 mph year-on-year, and his quick swing price (the share of swings at 75 mph or extra) has risen from 1.5% to 13.9%.

Perdomo’s not precisely Joey Gallo, however at 6-foot-2, 203 kilos, he’s a giant, sturdy dude. A man like that swinging the bat tougher ought to clearly result in an offensive surge, particularly if his already-elite strike zone judgement and call abilities stay unaffected.

So right here’s the factor. Whereas Perdomo’s right-side swing attributes look nice in comparison with what he was doing final 12 months, he nonetheless doesn’t hit the ball onerous in any respect:

Perdomo’s hard-hit price is within the 18th percentile this 12 months. His bat velocity is within the eighth percentile. That is nonetheless within the Punch-and-Judy neighborhood.

So how is he so good?

For starters, it helps while you stroll 14.7% of the time and strike out simply 11.8% of the time. Perdomo is extraordinarily selective. Out of 164 certified hitters this 12 months, he has the seventh-lowest total swing price, one spot forward of Kyle Schwarber. His chase price is the third lowest in baseball. He’s additionally prime 10 within the league in each in-zone and total contact price.

On the similar time, his out-of-zone contact price is simply 65.7%, or thirty third highest. Which is, paradoxically, higher for him. Until you’re Luis Arraez, who’s making contact on 95.1% of swings outdoors the zone this 12 months, and in some way hitting .404 on these swings, you’re not going to finish up doing a lot with contact outdoors the zone anyway.

Mainly, this 12 months Perdomo is what it’d seem like if Juan Soto by no means went to the health club. He’s an excessive strike miser, which means he rarely chases pitches outdoors the zone, and he rarely offers away strikes by lacking pitches he swings at.

These look like the 2 attributes you’d most need from a hitter, proper? So that you’d anticipate a listing of strike misers to simply be a listing of nice hitters. Let’s see. Perdomo is considered one of solely eight hitters who’s within the ninetieth percentile or higher this 12 months for each whiff price and chase price. Right here they’re:

Seems these qualities are extraordinarily correlated with being named Alex, however much less so with being a fantastic hitter. Clearly, seven of the eight names listed below are operating wRC+ marks over 100, however a number of these guys weren’t good final 12 months. Urías, as an example, is presently hitting .266 after failing to hit .200 in both of the previous two seasons. Frelick, Meidroth, and Friedl are bizarre hitters greater than the rest.

What they’ve in widespread is low bat velocity. Similar to Perdomo.

Perdomo makes me query that article of religion about how the toughest factor to do in sports activities is to hit a spherical ball with a spherical bat. I suppose it’s not really all that tough. The trick is to hit the spherical ball with the spherical bat in simply the fitting spot, whereas swinging the bat as quick as potential. It’s very, very tough to do.

For many guys, it’s a tradeoff between bat velocity and bat management. The grid on the prime of Baseball Savant’s bat monitoring leaderboard really illustrates that discount fairly effectively. You’ll be able to see who’s ripping the bat via the zone at most velocity (Oneil Cruz, Aaron Decide), and who’s swinging the bat extra slowly with a purpose to place the ball completely on the candy spot (Arraez, Jacob Wilson, Mookie Betts).

In the event you go to Perdomo’s Baseball Savant web page and take a look at the abstract part, you’ll see that there’s one quality-of-contact metric wherein he isn’t solely up from final 12 months, however above-average in comparison with the league: launch angle candy spot share. That is the share of batted balls that come off the bat at a launch angle between eight and 32 levels.

Perdomo’s candy spot price, 37.0%, is a profession excessive, and an enchancment of 8.1 share factors from final season. Nevertheless it’s not precisely uncharted territory for him. In 2023, Perdomo had a candy spot price of 35.4%, and his wRC+ was 98, not 145. His underlying numbers (together with a .275 xwOBA) had been even worse. The distinction is that Perdomo has far below-average bat velocity now, however in 2023, his bat velocity was absolute rock-bottom, simply 65.7 mph. Apparently, that’s sluggish sufficient that it doesn’t matter that a lot in the event you sq. the ball up.

This 12 months, Perdomo is hitting the ball simply onerous sufficient to get his cash’s value out of that stable contact. Add in the truth that his strikeout and stroll numbers went from glorious to extraordinary, and that’s adequate to show a median hitter with no energy right into a well-rounded offensive participant and elite on-base man.

For what it’s value, the Diamondbacks as a group pop off the bat monitoring leaderboard. They’re first within the league in squared up price (which measures the share of potential exit velo that will get transferred to the ball on contact), and second to the Yankees in splendid assault angle share. Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte have been elite at combining bat velocity with a productive swing angle, however a bunch of Diamondbacks hitters — Perdomo, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Gabriel Moreno, and even Alek Thomas — are hitting the candy spot frequently.

The final time the Diamondbacks went to the playoffs, Perdomo hit on the backside of the order and made his best influence by bunting: 5 sacrifices and a bunt single in 17 video games. If Arizona will get again there this October, he’ll be increased within the order, and far much less keen to offer away outs.