Friends With Gennett’s Hits

Scooter Gennett owns a .300 lifetime batting average. To be fair, that line is a bit misleading as his lifetime of major league hitting consists of 704 plate appearances spread out over parts of two seasons. The left-handed hitting second baseman has been used in a platoon fashion with the probable free-agent-to-be Rickie Weeks since Gennett was called up in 2013.

Despite the lack of PAs that comes with a platoon, it probably benefited both Gennett and fantasy owners. His struggles against left-handed pitching have plagued him for some time, as his combined minor league splits — courtesy of Minor League Central — have Gennett hitting .259/.294/.349 against southpaws versus a much more impressive .308/.348/.409 against right-handers. In 2012, his last full season in the minors, Gennett hit for a .270 wOBA against left-handed pitchers compared to a .351 clip when facing a righty in Double-A.

It’s safe to say his platoon woes have followed him to the majors, as Gennett hits for a strong 131 wRC+ when digging in against opposite-handed pitching, yet a terrible -29 wRC+ against fellow lefties. Yes, that is a negative 29, not a typo. Of course we’re still well within the range of small sample size. Similar to how Gennett holds a .300 career AVG, he’s only faced a lefty 83 times in his major league career.

A hitter’s strikeout rate tends to normalize around the 60 PA mark, but with Gennett’s 83 PAs against lefties have come spread out over two seasons, it is hard to put much stock into his gruesome 28.8% K%. His paltry 1.2% walk rate is even harder to gauge as BB% for hitters stabilizes around 120 PAs. There are concerns about his above average BABIP continuing, but I think he continues to post an elevated BABIP. Gennett has hit well to all fields during his two seasons of action, hitting for a 179 wRC+ to pull and 130 to an 134 to center and opposite field respectively. That doesn’t scream “pull hitter getting luck” to me.

Given what we know about his minor league history as well as his small major league career, if you decide to draft Gennett as a primary second baseman, make sure you have another 2B/MI eligible player on the roster. Expect Gennett to sit against lefties fairly regularly, which is actually fine for everyone. With his poor stats against same-handed pitchers, it isn’t like anyone should be plugging him in the lineup every day. Weekly leagues have a tougher decision even though the majority of PAs — 73.2% — were thrown with a right-handed pitcher on the mound.

Gennett collects his hits and is a great 5×5 player. though leagues that replaced AVG with on-base percentage may want to look elsewhere. His career walk rate is below 5% and his counting stats will probably won’t thrill you. Even without much flash, Gennett ranked as the 12th best second baseman as per Zach Sanders’ rankings. Expect a similar end of season ranking next year. Gennett isn’t elite, but he gets hits. You may as well benefit from them.