With all of the roster movements that the Guardians have made over the past few weeks, Richie Palacios has found himself at the Major League level and down in AAA Columbus. Moving back and forth between the big leagues and minors could have a negative effect on a player, but Palacios continues to shine when he is with the club.
So far on the season, Palacios is hitting .270 with an OPS of .605 when playing up with the Guardians. For a player who does not consistently see major league pitching, this is pretty impressive.
Another area that shows how comfortable Palacios feels at the plate is the number of pitches he sees per at-bat. Right now, Palacios is averaging 4.22 pitches per plate appearance, which is above the league average of 3.98.
On top of looking at so many pitches during his at-bats, Palacios is also fouling off 32.3 percent of his strikes and only swinging at 8.3 percent of them, which is also impressive when stacked up against the league averages in these categories. This is an incredibly encouraging sign because it shows that Palacios is successfully making contact with the ball, even if they do not end up as hits.
The offensive side is not only where Palacios has impressed. Over the 75 innings that he has played in left field, Palacios has 23 putouts with a 1.000 fielding percentage. Even though he has not recorded an outfield assist yet, he has yet to make an error.
Even though it is a small sample size, Palacios has shown his worth to a big league club and has proven that he is ready to be an everyday player moving forward.
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