Shea Langeliers Is Breaking Out — Once more

Simply because the Athletics are main their division whereas the Astros are effectively beneath .500 doesn’t imply that the AL West is solely upside-down. As soon as once more, a catcher is having such an unimaginable season on the plate that his offense is value speaking about, and if the season ended at present, he’d be within the MVP dialogue. This time round we’re not speaking about Cal Raleigh — who simply landed on the injured checklist shortly after snapping an 0-for-38 droop — however Shea Langeliers. At this writing, the A’s catcher is at the moment hanging with the massive boys on the batting leaderboards and doing issues which might be value conserving an eye fixed upon.

The 28-year-old Langeliers entered Friday hitting .340/.397/.623, which isn’t simply nice for a catcher, however it’s top-of-the-line traces in baseball. His 179 wRC+ ranks third within the majors behind solely Ben Rice and Yordan Alvarez, one level forward of Aaron Choose, and his slugging share is third within the AL, nestled amongst those self same 4 hitters. He leads all catchers with 12 house runs, tied for eighth amongst all main league hitters. However what actually caught my eye is that his batting common leads the AL.

Sure, batting common is the least vital of these slash stats, however as I’ve maintained earlier than, at a time when .300 hitters have turn out to be an endangered species — the NL had only one final 12 months, Trea Turner — it’s value giving a rattling about batting common once more. Batting common is enjoyable; batting common has leisure worth. When batting averages are low, the sport is extra static, and proper now the 30 groups as a complete are slashing a mixed .240/.319/.389, down from .245/.315/.404 final 12 months. If maintained over a full season, this 12 months’s batting common can be the third lowest since 1901, forward of solely 1968 (.237) and 1908 (.239).

It’s true that the league-wide on-base share is larger than final 12 months. That’s as a result of walks are up, as I famous earlier this month (9.5%, up from 8.4% final 12 months — for extra on why, see Ben Clemens right here), however that solely will increase the extent to which video games are (once more) slowing down and producing much less motion. Thus I’m going to proceed my batting common boosterism till morale improves.

Plus, catchers main the league in batting common are solely barely extra frequent than canines driving vehicles. You in all probability already know that it’s a brief checklist of backstops who’ve gained batting titles: 4 in AL/NL historical past, specifically Joe Mauer (2006, ’08, ’09), Ernie Lombardi (1938, ’42), Bubbles Hargrave (1926), and Buster Posey (2012). It’s far too early to declare that Langeliers is on his method to turning into the fifth, however it’s value appreciating what’s taking part in in Small Pattern Theater. To return to the metaphor, when you see a canine driving a automotive, you don’t say, “Nah, he’ll in all probability get pulled over quickly, let’s transfer alongside,” you examine!

First off, given the American League batting common of .239, Langeliers at the moment has the biggest margin above his league of any batting title-qualified catcher:

For that desk, I haven’t simply caught to the present threshold for batting title qualification based mostly on 3.1 plate appearances per recreation, which has been in place since 1957 and which permits for phantom at-bats for use in figuring out rating if a participant is wanting the mark. Lombardi’s 1942 title and Hargrave’s 1926 title each match into the desk above through an older 100-game threshold, and since extra forgiving requirements held all through the high-offense Twenties and ’30s, another catchers who met these bygone requirements are included above. I made a decision to go this route because it appeared much less foolish than evaluating Langeliers’ pattern of 179 plate appearances towards a extra strict normal.

Anyway, you’ll be able to see that Langeliers tops the checklist — that’s .1003 factors forward, which rounds down — with Mauer (.09863 forward of the league) and Piazza (.09858 forward) needing to go to the fifth decimal to settle the rankings instantly beneath him. For those who’re questioning why Piazza didn’t win the batting title in 1997, it was as a result of Tony Gwynn hit .372, whereas Phelps was outdone by Paul Waner’s .373.

One other method to examine a participant to his league is to make use of our Plus Stats, that are listed in the best way that ERA+ is, with park changes baked into the calculations and 100 representing league common. Since I didn’t have the posh of utilizing Baseball Reference’s Stathead to handle the patchwork qualification requirements previous to 1957, this one relies on the three.1-PA per recreation normal utilized in our leaderboards.

I like this comparability a bit higher, because the park adjustment provides a further dimension. Langeliers is benefitting from calling Sacramento’s bandbox house, hitting .370/.452/.630 (195 wRC+) in 84 plate appearances there and .315/.347/.618 (165 wRC+) in 95 plate appearances elsewhere — however not sufficient to distort this comparability solely. Sutter Well being Park isn’t Coors Subject or the Baker Bowl.

All of that may be a prelude to a deeper take a look at what Langeliers is definitely doing. Now in his fourth main league season, he was initially drafted out of Baylor College by the Braves with the ninth choose within the 2019 draft, and despatched to the A’s in March 2022 as considered one of 4 gamers within the return for Matt Olson, who himself is completely raking (.294/.371/.629, 174 wRC+). Langeliers reached the majors on August 16, 2022, and for his first two-plus seasons offered stable, however unspectacular offense for the place, albeit with low batting averages; from 2022–24, he hit a mixed .215/.276/.432 (98 wRC+), and for the final of these seasons, he hit .224/.288/.450 (109 wRC+) with 29 house runs.

Langeliers jumped to a .277/.325/.536 slash line with 31 house runs and a 132 wRC+ final 12 months. Transferring from the pitcher-friendly Coliseum to hitter-friendly Sutter Well being Park helped; he went from .197/.270/.406 (96 wRC+) at house to .278/.319/.498 (118 wRC+). However he made different adjustments as effectively, a few of which present up in Statcast’s measures. Notably, he closed his stance a bit (from 20 levels open to 18), moved his ft farther aside (from 32.9 inches to 35.7), elevated the lean of his swing (from 29 levels to 30) however diminished his assault angle (from 12 levels to 11) and route (from 6 levels pull to three levels pull).

Past Statcast’s measures, and maybe extra importantly, Langeliers additionally moved his palms larger, simplifying his swing. Right here’s a screenshot from an MLB Community video that exhibits a development that carries over into this season (even with the marginally skewed perspective, it’s not onerous to identify):

As Langeliers defined to colleague David Laurila final fall, the adjustments included beginning his loading course of earlier:

“Every little thing sort of blends collectively, so when you’re beginning it later you rush via your swing… all people throws onerous, clearly, however the slower and earlier I will be, the swing comes out smoother. It’s not as rushed.

“I wish to be on the peak of my leg kick earlier than the pitcher releases the ball. If the pitcher has launched the ball and my leg remains to be going up in my load — if I’m beginning slightly bit late — my launch goes to hurry, and a few issues can occur. I’m both out and in of the zone, or I dump slightly early, again right here, so I’m beneath it.”

Langeliers advised Laurila that the additional time helped him “maintain the leg kick lengthy sufficient to have the ability to learn the pitch” and allowed him to be versatile as to how far out entrance he made contact and the place he targeted on hitting the ball, direction-wise. He additionally mentioned he had dialed again how onerous he tried to hit the ball, and the information assist this, although the year-to-year variations from 2024 to ’25 are slight, along with his common bat pace and quick swing price every dropping a bit (from 74.1 mph to 73.8 for the previous, and from 42.0% to 39.6% for the latter). The most important payoff was a much-improved efficiency towards four-seamers, type a .192 batting common and .364 slugging share towards them in 2024 to a .242 common and a .576 slugging in ’25. Whereas his whiff price towards four-seamers went up barely, total he minimize his strikeout price from 27.2% to 19.7%; his 7.5-point drop was the majors’ second largest amongst gamers who certified for the batting title in each seasons, just under Paul Goldschmidt’s 7.7-point drop.

Within the video from which that screenshot was taken, Mark DeRosa illustrated how rather more shortly Langeliers can get into his swing along with his palms larger — and once more, they’re larger now than they have been final August, to say nothing of final Might.

In 2026, Langeliers is swinging even tougher now, with a mean pace of 75.1 mph and a quick swing price of 51.7%, over 12 factors larger than final 12 months, along with his squared-up and blast charges per swing (24% and 14.3% this 12 months, respectively) nearly unchanged, and his exit velocity and associated metrics reflecting even higher contact:

Langeliers has not solely added over two miles per hour to his common exit velocity (boosting him from the 69th percentile to the 91st), he’s equally performed so for his barrel price (from 69th to 93rd) and hard-hit price (from 58th to 88th). He’s elevating the ball extra constantly (his groundball price has dropped from 37.3% to 32.2%), and his anticipated stats are all within the 99th percentile, up from final 12 months’s 52nd, 73rd, and 58th percentile, respectively, in xBA, xSLG, and xwOBA. His 94-point leap in BABIP, from .290 to .384, is the majors’ fourth largest amongst gamers with a minimum of 400 plate appearances final 12 months and 100 this 12 months; it doesn’t harm that he runs very effectively (81st percentile, up from an already-impressive-for-a-catcher sixty fifth percentile).

Pitch-wise, Langeliers has constructed on final 12 months’s advances and is totally demolishing four-seamers (.324 AVG/.794 SLG), along with his xSLG towards them leaping from .515 to .791. By way of pitch teams, which beef up the pattern sizes, his year-to-year enchancment towards fastballs is much less dramatic than it’s towards breaking balls:

Langeliers was fairly good towards breaking balls in 2024 however struggled final 12 months. His common exit velocity towards these pitches is up almost eight miles per hour, along with his xSLG growing by 270 factors and his xwOBA by 174 factors. He’s giving opposing pitchers fewer locations to cover; even in small samples, the one pitch during which he’s not hitting a minimum of .324 is the sweeper (.158 in 21 plate appearances).

All advised, Langeliers is now in his second consecutive season with excessive enhancements, and I’ll word that they’re not simply on the offensive aspect; he’s improved his pitch blocking from -6 runs in 2024 to 0 final 12 months and 1 this 12 months, along with his total FRV bettering from -13 to -2 to 0. His 2.4 WAR is effectively previous his 2024 mark (1.9) and greater than midway to final 12 months’s fairly respectable 3.9, tied with Choose for second within the league behind Bobby Witt Jr. Langeliers will not be Cal Raleigh, however proper now he seems to be like one thing particular.