Hitting by Position, 2024

The first obvious thing to look at is the positional totals for 2024, with the data coming from Baseball-Reference. "MLB” is the overall total for MLB, which is not the same as the sum of all the positions here, as pinch-hitters and runners are not included in those. “POS” is the MLB totals minus the pitcher totals, yielding the composite performance by non-pitchers. “PADJ” is the position adjustment, which is the position RG divided by the total for all positions, including pitchers (but excluding pinch hitters). “LPADJ” is the long-term offensive positional adjustment, based on 2010-2019 data. The rows “79” and “3D” are the combined corner outfield and 1B/DH totals, respectively:

As was the case last year, among the most notable deviations from traditional norms was the poor output of third basemen and center fielders. However, it is the performance of shortstops that really catches the eye for 2024, as only first base, right field, and DH exceeded shortstops in RG.

The teams with the best performance at each position (in terms of runs above average, with all team figures from this point forward in the post being park-adjusted. The RAA figures for each position are baselined against the overall major league average RG for the position, except for left field and right field which are pooled):

C—MIL, 1B—TOR, 2B—ARI, 3B—CLE, SS—KC, LF—MIL, CF—NYA, RF—NYA, DH—LA

These are all self-explanatory with the possible exception of Brewer left fielders. Christian Yelich got off to a great start (.326/.417/.564 over 200 PA) and by the time he replaced Yelich, Jackson Chourio had found his groove and hit .314/.363/.540 over 344 PA as a left fielder.

The worst team RAAs at each position were as follows, with the player listed being the one who started the most games at that position (not always the primary culprit for the league-worse performance):

Texas DH was a team effort, with Wyatt Langford singled out but only started 25 times. Seven other Rangers started ten or more games at DH.

The next table shows the correlation (r) between each team’s RG for each position (excluding pitchers) and the long-term position adjustment (using pooled 1B/DH and LF/RF). A high correlation indicates that a team’s offense tended to come from positions that you would expect it to:

We already saw that the Reds first basemen were terrible, which contributes to the low correlation, but their DHs were even worse, “contributing” -36 RAA, the second lowest of any position in MLB, trailing only the Rangers DHs.

The following tables, broken out by division, display RAA for each position, with teams sorted by the sum of positional RAA. Positions with negative RAA are in red, and positions that are +/-20 RAA are bolded:

* The White Sox had both the worst infield and outfield performance, plus the worst catching performance. Their DHs were bad too but -22 RAA was only sixth-lowest.

* Despite -15 RAA from their left fielders, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto combined to give the Yankees the most productive outfield in the majors.

* Colorado was last in the NL in infield RAA and second-last (behind Pittsburgh) for outfielders.

A spreadsheet with the data by position is available here.