Something Has Clicked with Eduardo Escobar

Throughout his time with the Minnesota Twins, Eduardo Escobar has always served in the role of a backup utility infielder. However, with the Twins inconsistency on the left-side of the infield over that time, Escobar has seen plenty of playing time.

In his last two seasons Escobar has been called to step up in a big way at both shortstop and third base. Last season, when Miguel Sano went down with a leg injury with a month and a half left in the season, Escobar filled in nicely for him at third. Now this year Escobar has been called upon to fill the void at short after an 80-game suspension was handed down to Jorge Polanco.

In his time filling in, Escobar has been one of the Twins best hitters in a lineup that has had some success. At the end of 2017, after Sano went down with his injury, Escobar had an OPS of .826, which was not far off the .859 OPS Sano himself had put up last season. Escobar did have some struggles at third defensively, but considering the guy he was replacing, it didn’t make that much of a difference.

This year, Escobar has gotten off to an even hotter start with the bat, leading all Twins hitters with a .926 OPS. A big part of Escobar’s success has come from his ability to hit doubles. So far this year, Escobar has already hit 11 doubles, which is just one behind Ozzie Albies and Miguel Andujar for the major league lead.

The thing with Escobar is, his breakout didn’t just begin when Miguel Sano went down with his injury. In fact, Escobar actually started to heat up a couple months prior to that at the beginning of June. Since June 1st, Escobar has accumulated an OPS of .819 across 483 plate appearances.

Escobar’s biggest turnaround over that time has come in the power department. In the time that amounts to almost exactly one month shy of a full season, Escobar has hit 21 home runs to go along with 23 doubles and 5 triples.

So, what has caused this sudden turnaround from a below average hitter, to a guy the Twins can count on in the middle of their lineup?

One change Escobar has made over the last two years is his aggressiveness on pitches in the zone. Here is a chart illustrating how Eduardo Escobar’s aggressiveness towards pitches in the zone has evolved over the last few years.

As you can see, Escobar has taken a nearly eight percent jump in attack pitches in the zone over the last four years. Perhaps the most encouraging part about this increased aggressiveness for Escobar is it has not expanded much into chasing pitches outside of the zone. Over that same time, Escobar’s chase rate has only increased by a little over two percent.

One of the biggest talking points during the “Statcast Era” has been circled around hitters seeing improved results from increasing their launch angle. There have been many players like Ryan Zimmerman or Yonder Alonso, who have received some publicity for their improvements as a result of increasing their launch angle, but one player who has flown under the radar after also doing this is Eduardo Escobar.

Over the past four seasons, Escobar has seen his average launch angle steadily increase every year from 13.5°, to 15°, to 17.5°, and all the way up to 21.6° so far this year. This has played a big part in Escobar’s power production over that time.

Because of these changes in his approach, Eduardo Escobar has seen an increased ability to swing the bat from the left side of the plate. Leading up to that same June 1st date of last year, Escobar had a career OPS as a lefty of .640, or a wRC+ of 73.

Since then, Escobar has been one of the best left-handed hitters in the game. Among the exactly 100 hitters with at least 300 plate appearances as a left-handed hitter since June 1st, 2017, Escobar’s .887 OPS ranks 13th, and his 130 wRC+ ranks 16th.

This is all great news for Escobar, who at 29, will be hitting the free agent market this winter. Given the way things played out in free agency this past offseason, it could be a rough scene for a player like Escobar who has never been a full-time regular in the bigs. Hopefully, for both Escobar and the Twins, he can keep up his impressive performance for the rest of the season and give himself a shot at a multi-year contract this winter.