2014 Most Shifted Players
I have been asked a few times to list the hitters who where shifted the most in 2014 along with their results. Well, here they are along with a few thoughts.
Hitters who hit into a shift 100 or more times during the 2014 season.
| Name | Bats | Hits vs Shift | Batted Balls into Shift | Shift BABIP | No Shift BABIP | BABIP | Diff | XBH% w/ Shift | XBH% w/o Shift | XBH% | Diff |
| David Ortiz | L | 93 | 369 | 0.252 | 0.150 | 0.251 | 0.102 | 6.8% | 5.0% | 6.6% | 0.018 |
| Ryan Howard | L | 87 | 318 | 0.274 | 0.467 | 0.293 | -0.193 | 5.4% | 6.7% | 5.8% | -0.013 |
| Brian McCann | L | 67 | 311 | 0.215 | 0.268 | 0.226 | -0.053 | 3.9% | 7.1% | 4.2% | -0.033 |
| Albert Pujols | R | 79 | 271 | 0.292 | 0.254 | 0.271 | 0.037 | 6.6% | 4.9% | 7.6% | 0.017 |
| Brandon Moss | L | 70 | 255 | 0.275 | 0.268 | 0.278 | 0.006 | 7.1% | 7.3% | 7.3% | -0.003 |
| Lucas Duda | L | 62 | 245 | 0.253 | 0.321 | 0.292 | -0.068 | 8.2% | 7.1% | 7.9% | 0.010 |
| Mark Teixeira | B | 52 | 238 | 0.219 | 0.222 | 0.228 | -0.004 | 3.8% | 5.6% | 4.1% | -0.018 |
| Adam LaRoche | L | 65 | 232 | 0.280 | 0.317 | 0.284 | -0.037 | 7.8% | 3.3% | 6.0% | 0.044 |
| Mike Moustakas | L | 52 | 230 | 0.226 | 0.214 | 0.220 | 0.012 | 5.7% | 7.1% | 5.9% | -0.015 |
| Chris Davis | L | 53 | 230 | 0.230 | 0.353 | 0.236 | -0.123 | 6.1% | 17.7% | 6.6% | -0.116 |
| Matt Adams | L | 83 | 222 | 0.374 | 0.333 | 0.342 | 0.041 | 9.9% | 10.6% | 9.8% | -0.007 |
| Adam Dunn | L | 68 | 221 | 0.308 | 0.300 | 0.296 | 0.008 | 8.1% | 10.0% | 8.0% | -0.019 |
| Anthony Rizzo | L | 70 | 219 | 0.320 | 0.300 | 0.308 | 0.020 | 7.8% | 6.7% | 8.2% | 0.011 |
| Carlos Santana | B | 59 | 217 | 0.272 | 0.250 | 0.246 | 0.022 | 5.5% | 6.8% | 6.0% | -0.013 |
| Kyle Seager | L | 65 | 204 | 0.319 | 0.244 | 0.282 | 0.075 | 9.3% | 6.3% | 7.0% | 0.030 |
| Victor Martinez | B | 67 | 202 | 0.332 | 0.318 | 0.329 | 0.014 | 6.4% | 8.4% | 7.4% | -0.020 |
| Jose Bautista | R | 50 | 199 | 0.251 | 0.323 | 0.281 | -0.072 | 5.5% | 5.1% | 6.3% | 0.005 |
| Jay Bruce | L | 54 | 189 | 0.286 | 0.216 | 0.263 | 0.070 | 7.4% | 0.0% | 6.7% | 0.074 |
| Garrett Jones | L | 50 | 184 | 0.272 | 0.292 | 0.280 | -0.020 | 8.2% | 11.2% | 9.5% | -0.031 |
| Edwin Encarnacion | R | 48 | 184 | 0.261 | 0.209 | 0.244 | 0.052 | 7.6% | 5.8% | 7.2% | 0.018 |
| Curtis Granderson | L | 52 | 183 | 0.284 | 0.315 | 0.269 | -0.031 | 8.7% | 8.7% | 7.1% | 0.000 |
| Pedro Alvarez | L | 50 | 156 | 0.321 | 0.222 | 0.278 | 0.098 | 3.9% | 7.9% | 5.5% | -0.041 |
| Chris Carter | R | 45 | 155 | 0.290 | 0.279 | 0.271 | 0.012 | 8.4% | 10.1% | 8.0% | -0.017 |
| Freddie Freeman | L | 44 | 154 | 0.286 | 0.352 | 0.337 | -0.066 | 7.1% | 13.3% | 9.8% | -0.061 |
| Adrian Gonzalez | L | 45 | 151 | 0.298 | 0.277 | 0.294 | 0.021 | 9.3% | 10.2% | 9.2% | -0.009 |
| Raul Ibanez | L | 27 | 144 | 0.188 | 0.250 | 0.208 | -0.063 | 6.9% | 10.0% | 7.1% | -0.031 |
| Evan Longoria | R | 36 | 143 | 0.252 | 0.290 | 0.291 | -0.038 | 4.9% | 4.9% | 5.9% | 0.000 |
| Seth Smith | L | 38 | 142 | 0.268 | 0.279 | 0.307 | -0.011 | 6.3% | 6.3% | 10.3% | 0.000 |
| Alex Avila | L | 47 | 136 | 0.346 | 0.333 | 0.319 | 0.012 | 10.3% | 11.9% | 9.4% | -0.016 |
| Matt Joyce | L | 36 | 135 | 0.267 | 0.338 | 0.318 | -0.071 | 5.9% | 14.3% | 8.4% | -0.084 |
| Alex Gordon | L | 41 | 132 | 0.311 | 0.296 | 0.303 | 0.015 | 4.6% | 8.6% | 8.2% | -0.040 |
| Colby Rasmus | L | 40 | 129 | 0.310 | 0.267 | 0.304 | 0.043 | 10.9% | 13.3% | 10.6% | -0.025 |
| Josh Hamilton | L | 48 | 129 | 0.372 | 0.367 | 0.348 | 0.005 | 13.2% | 6.7% | 9.8% | 0.065 |
| Carlos Beltran | B | 28 | 127 | 0.221 | 0.261 | 0.250 | -0.040 | 8.7% | 6.5% | 7.6% | 0.021 |
| Yoenis Cespedes | R | 42 | 126 | 0.333 | 0.304 | 0.295 | 0.030 | 11.9% | 10.7% | 9.5% | 0.012 |
| Oswaldo Arcia | L | 41 | 124 | 0.331 | 0.255 | 0.297 | 0.075 | 8.9% | 6.4% | 9.5% | 0.025 |
| Juan Francisco | L | 34 | 120 | 0.283 | 0.353 | 0.301 | -0.070 | 10.8% | 11.8% | 11.0% | -0.009 |
| Kendrys Morales | B | 31 | 118 | 0.263 | 0.250 | 0.247 | 0.013 | 5.9% | 8.3% | 7.3% | -0.024 |
| Prince Fielder | L | 30 | 108 | 0.278 | 0.250 | 0.284 | 0.028 | 9.3% | 6.3% | 8.2% | 0.030 |
| Justin Smoak | B | 24 | 106 | 0.226 | 0.270 | 0.249 | -0.044 | 7.6% | 10.8% | 7.7% | -0.033 |
| Adam Lind | L | 32 | 106 | 0.302 | 0.475 | 0.380 | -0.173 | 9.4% | 13.6% | 10.6% | -0.041 |
| Josh Reddick | L | 30 | 104 | 0.289 | 0.389 | 0.305 | -0.100 | 9.6% | 7.8% | 8.9% | 0.018 |
| Ike Davis | L | 32 | 104 | 0.308 | 0.232 | 0.262 | 0.076 | 4.8% | 5.8% | 6.8% | -0.010 |
| Nick Swisher | B | 25 | 100 | 0.250 | 0.275 | 0.271 | -0.025 | 6.0% | 8.8% | 7.8% | -0.028 |
Thoughts
• The number of players hitting into a shift over a 100 times has doubled since 2012. The total has gone from from 20 in 2012, to 16 in 2013 to 44 in 2014.
• Some hitters are beginning to make adjustments when facing the shift as Eno notes in an article at Fox Sports.
• Of this 45 hitters, the average difference in BABIP between when they hit into an infield shift and not hitting into one was 9 points worse.
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Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
I love this.
Would be really interesting to see a % of PAs against shift column, which is what I thought this article would show.
Cool other stuff though.
Sorry for not putting it in the article, but the data I have from Inside Edge only looks at balls in play, not each PA.
I’m surprised Mauer isn’t on this list.
Good stuff here. I’d be curious to know if Mauer would have made this list if he hadn’t missed time with an injury. Seems he’s lost a lot of singles up the middle and singles and doubles on the left field line.
I hadn’t thought of that, thanks. Maybe time played is the contributing factor as to why he isn’t on the list. It is a cumulative list.
No comments about certain players results against the shift? Matt Adams is certainly an interesting one.
Not a single Giant on the list.
Wow Chris Davis got murdered by the shift
I don’t understand Alex Avila’s data. How can BABIP be lower than both Shift BABIP and No Shift BABIP? It should be a weighted average of the prior two columns.
And Brandon Moss’s overall BABIP is higher than both his shift and no shift BABIP.
So why the heck did they keep shifting Big Papi all year?
Any explanation for the Jay Bruce numbers? Was there a sample size issue on the no-shift data? The fact he didn’t have a single XBH in a non-shift seems wrong unless there just weren’t many of them. He really seems to struggle with the shift, so the idea that he bats 70 points better into it, makes me question the meaningfulness of this data.
Jeff, any thoughts?