How a passive approach is hindering the Diamondbacks' offense

The Diamondbacks are 3-8, and it’s been nearly impossible to hold back memories of the 2021 team that threatened the worst record in franchise history.

With the possible exception of the starting pitching, nothing has gone right for the team in 2022. They lead the league in errors. The bullpen has the fewest strikeouts in the majors. But it’s no secret that, if any one aspect of the team should take the majority of the blame for the 3-8 start, it’s the offense.

The Diamondbacks enter their Wednesday matchup against the Nationals with a team batting line of .156/.277/.265. Their .542 OPS is second-worst in baseball.

Hitters not named Seth Beer are batting .135 with a .238 slugging percentage. For comparison, Diamondbacks pitchers batted .121 with a .191 slugging percentage last year.

There’s no way around it — the 2022 offense has been an unmitigated disaster. Unfortunately, none of it looks like a fluke. At the heart of the problem is a passive approach that has locked up hitters when it matters most.

Here’s Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo at the plate in a 3-1 count, trailing by a run late in Tuesday night’s game against the Nationals. The outcome is a microcosm of a team-wide problem.

The incident puzzled broadcasters Steve Berthaiume and Bob Brenly, and rightfully so. Not only does Perdomo spit on a center-cut fastball in a hitter-friendly count, but his body language makes it apparent that he’s not trying to destroy the baseball — he’s trying to walk. 

That approach has led Perdomo to an incredibly high 25-percent walk-rate in the early-going. Unfortunately, that walk rate is accompanied by a lackluster batting average of .045 (1-for-22). And Perdomo’s not the only one. 

Fellow rookie Cooper Hummel is 2-for-20 (.100) to start the year with eight walks. As a team, the Diamondbacks have the highest walk rate in baseball by a wide margin at 13 percent — and the worst batting average in baseball.

Of course, walks are not bad, nor is leading the league in pitches per plate appearance. The problem is that it’s virtually impossible to maintain that degree of patience while simultaneously staying ready to punish the kinds of mistake pitches that lead to big innings. There’s a difference between patience and passivity, and the numbers suggest that the Diamondbacks are leaning toward the latter.

Entering Wednesday, the team had the lowest swing rate in baseball at 42 percent (the league average is 46.3 percent). To be fair, low swing rates are not necessarily bad. Some of the best players in the game, like Juan Soto, have swing rates that are even lower (30.2 percent). 

The difference is that Soto is an elite hitter that opposing teams handle with caution. Less than 35 percent of the pitches that Soto has seen this season were in the strike zone. The Diamondbacks, on the other hand, have seen 44.2 percent of pitches in the zone as a team, which is the second-highest mark in the league. That means the D-backs are seeing more strikes than nearly every other team, but swinging less often than everyone.

Laying off pitches out of the zone is good, and the Diamondbacks have excelled in that regard. They have a 24.9 percent swing rate at pitches out of the zone — also lowest in the majors. That explains why they’re walking more than everyone else.

On the other hand, the Diamondbacks’ 63.6 percent swing rate at pitches in the zone is second-lowest in the majors, behind only the Padres. Swinging at strikes so sparingly has presumably made it difficult to establish offensive rhythm early in the season.

The fact that the Diamondbacks have encountered several top-notch pitchers in the early-going hasn’t helped, either. Catching up to a Yu Darvish fastball is hard enough when geared up for it. Go up there trying to walk, and it’s nearly impossible.

Talking in broad brush strokes about the Diamondbacks’ entire offense is only so helpful, though. Here are swing percentages for all D-backs hitters in 2022 (O-Swing% is percentage of pitches outside the zone that are swung at and Z-Swing% is the percentage of pitches in the zone that are swung at).

Everything is relative for a team that has scored 22 runs in 11 games, but it’s immediately apparent that several of the team’s most successful hitters to date — Beer, Ketel Marte, David Peralta and Daulton Varsho have the highest swing rates. Most of the players at the bottom have struggled to contribute outside of drawing walks.

To be fair, Beer, Marte, Peralta and Varsho have four of the five highest swinging strike rates out of the players on this list. And that’s a price the Diamondbacks are probably going to have to pay. With more swings inevitably come more misses. All indications are that this is a worthy tradeoff.

When ahead in the count, D-backs hitters are currently batting .180 with a .320 slugging percentage — both worst in the majors by more than 40 points. Trying to notch a walk per inning is a nice way to pad on-base percentages, but no way to score runs.

As a member of what has been MLB’s best division by far in 2022, the Diamondbacks need to turn things around quickly to stay relevant.

Follow Jesse Friedman on Twitter

Top photo: Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports

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