Andrés Giménez: What’s Going On?
Andrés Giménez, who had a tremendous All-Star season in 2022, is having a dreadful season this year. Fans were expecting more of the same, but they’ve gotten anything but. Giménez was playing with a bit of house money last year, and his clutch numbers are hard to replicate. He had a .353 BABIP, which looked cool but felt a bit like a house of cards. He’s fast, which helps with the BABIP, but even with that, it felt squirrelly. Those marks have collapsed, as he holds a .266 BABIP this year and a .558 OPS in high-leverage situations.
What’s the Problem?
The situation is likely manifold. First, it could be that the pace of the game is still getting to him. Last year he was facing a 19.1-second pitch tempo, but this year it’s dropped to 14.2 seconds, which places him 14th quickest in all of baseball. More than that though, it’s hard not to start wondering if he’s in his own head. It’s not like pitchers are attacking him any differently, apart from a smidge fewer changeups than a year ago. But what’s worrying is just how he’s attacking that fastball. He’s swinging at them at about the same rate but his swing-and-miss has bounced a point and a half to 25.8% on them.
Conclusion
For him to just fall apart, you have to think it’s either in the head or his body is broken in some strange way that nobody knows about. All you can hope for now is he figures something out because he’s a major cog in this offense. If that’s not working, this already troubling season is going to get interminable. Baseball being such a wildly mental game, it’s hard to draw hard conclusions aside from « he stinks now » when all the rate stats and process markers are so hideous.
Keywords: Andrés Giménez, dreadful season, All-Star season, clutch numbers, pace of the game, swing-and-miss, baseball.
