Tim Beckham, Seattle Mariners
wRC+ through April 30th: 139
wRC+ since May 1st: 62
Beckham was an intriguing story through the season’s first month. Did things just start clicking for the former top overall pick? It certainly appeared that way as he slashed .282/.352/.527 with six home runs, 19 RBI, and 19 runs scored. Things have spiraled out of control for the infielder since the calendar flipped to May, unfortunately.
In addition to his 62 wRC+ (entering Wednesday’s action), Beckham is hitting .186/.205/.419 over his most recent 88 plate appearances. That has included another five homers and 14 RBI, but it’s also been accompanied by a 1.1% walk rate and 31.8% strikeout rate. The biggest change has been what his batted-ball profile looks like between these two periods of time.
At the end of April, Beckham owned a 16.4% soft-hit rate and 37.0% hard-hit rate, which meshed well with a 23.3% line-drive rate. Since then, his soft contact (34.5%) has easily outpaced his hard contact (27.6%), his line drives have disappeared (6.9%…nice), and the difference has gone to his ground-ball rate (43.8% to 60.3%).
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