Maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention, but when I saw Xander Bogaerts step to the plate yesterday in Oakland, I was shocked. He has no home runs this year? Are we sure about that? I could have sworn he’d hit one or two. Nope, he hasn’t and I’m starting to worry about the power in his game.
Bogaerts is flying under the radar right now because he has had a great batting average and seems to be spraying the ball all over the field. As of right now, he’s batting .320 with a .389 OBP, .433 slugging percentage and a .822 OPS. Bogaerts has 48 hits, nine of which are doubles and four of which are triples. He’s also running the bases well with seven steals and fielding decently. There isn’t a whole lot to hate about what he’s doing and in a weird way; he’s off to a really good start.
But two numbers really stick out in his stat line. He has zero homeruns and only 12 runs batted in thus far this season. That’s not what you want from a guy that is batting third in your lineup at all. This isn't unusual for his young career either. After an All Star campaign last year that saw Bogaerts hit 21 long balls and drive in 89 runs, many people thought his power had finally showed up. That doesn’t seem to be the case, as that year seems to be the outlier.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a guy that can make some great contact and be a tough out like Bogaerts is, but we need more from him at the plate. I don’t want him to get away from having a good approach and start pressing, but something needs to happen. This offense is struggling and one reason is because he isn’t contributing by getting runs across to score.
