A two-way player is one who can both hit and pitch. The most well known two-way player is probably the baseball legend Babe Ruth, who earned 94 wins and also hit 714 home runs in his legendary career.
The concept of a two-way player seems to be very simple. However, it’s extremely difficult to find a player who is qualified or has skills to be a successful two-way player. Under the MLB definition, only Shohei Ohtani is qualified as a two-way player this year. But Michael Lorenzen and Brendan McKay may fulfill the requirements if they have enough opportunities this season since we will probably see a shorter season if baseball returns.
Two-way player has been frequently discussed since Shohei Ohtani played in Japan’s professional baseball as a two-way player and stated that he intended to do so in the MLB. There was not much doubt that Ohtani had the ability to be a good pitcher. He did pitch well with the Angels before undergoing Tommy John surgery. In 10 starts, he pitched 51.2 innings and batter against him only hit .203.
Michael Lorenzen began his career in 2015 and is primarily a reliever, accumulating 58 holds and 350 strikeouts from 2015 to 2019. He’s also an outfielder and frequently enters games in the late innings.
Brendan McKay was the 4th overall pick in the 2017 draft. He was a two-way player in college and he made his MLB debut last year. He started 11 games and had 2 relief appearances, earning his first career win in his MLB debut.
Pitching (Career)
Baseball is hard and batting well is really hard. When Ohtani indicated that he would like to be a two-way player. Most people doubted his ability to hit in the big league. There are many great Japanese hitters who cannot replicate their performance in the MLB. Ohtani hit .286/.358/.500 in his NPB career, in 403 games, he collected 296 hits, 48 home runs and 166 RBIs. He’s a good hitter, but can he really hit in the MLB? Also, in 2018 spring training, Ohtani only hit .125/.222/.125, had only 4 hits (all singles) and was struck out 10 times in 11 games.
However, Ohtani has shown how great an athlete he is. In 2 seasons, he hit .286 as he did in Japan. 22 stolen bases are already more than 13 stolen bases in his NPB career. Meanwhile, his OPS was .859 back in Japan, but in the last 2 seasons with the Angels, his OPS was .883.
Michael Lorenzen doesn’t hit that much as he normally enters games in the late innings as defensive outfielder or as reliever. McKay only had 10 at bats last season.
Batting (Career)
Ohtani and McKay both rely on their 4-seamers, but the results were not that effective. BA against Ohtani’s 4-seamer was .382 and BA against McKay’s 4-seamer was .268. As a reliever, Lorenzen used 6 types of pitches in 2019, he used his cutter more than 4-seamer in 2019, BA against his cutter was .250.
Splitter is very common among Japanese pitchers. Ohtani also uses Splitter as one of his weapons and it’s very effective. Hitters only batted .036 against his split finger in 2018.
We can see that Lorenzen used changeup very often, 19.3%. Last season, batters only hit .108 against his changeup.
Pitching (Statcast)
As a hitter, Ohtani’s xwOBA was .365 in the last 2 seasons and 48.5% hard hit rate. His hard hit rate last season was 47.1%, ranked 26th in the league.
From 2015 to 2019, Lorenzen’s hard hit rate was 47.7%. It’s interesting to note that his hard hit rate was 52.2% and 64.3% in 2018 and 2019. Also, he’s a very good fastball hitter, with xwOBA .411 and .346 against fastballs in each of the last 2 seasons.
McKay had only 10 ABs last season, we are looking forward to seeing if he can provide more offense to the Rays.
Batting (Statcast)
Being an MLB pitcher or hitter is quite challenging and requires lots of talents. Being a two-way player is more demanding. How to well use two-way players is always an interesting topic. If baseball does return, it’ll be highly possible to see Ohtani back on the mound. How fast can he throw after Tommy John surgery? Can he get 10 wins and 10 home runs in the same season? Or maybe 15 wins and 15 homers? Meanwhile, will McKay have more opportunities in 2020? In the National League, can Lorenzen have more plate appearances? So he can reach 20 holds and 20 hits in a season.
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