Olson's incredible campaign is made from more than power
This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Barring an unforeseen turn of events, Matt Olson is going to shatter the Braves’ single-season home run record. But the most impressive part of Olson’s campaign has been his ability to maintain tremendous power while significantly reducing his strikeout rate.
The first baseman exited June 14 hitting .228 with 18 homers, a .830 OPS, a 29.9 percent strikeout rate and a 14.4 at-bats per home run ratio.
In the 41 games that have followed, Olson has hit .325 with 21 homers a 1.220 OPS, a 19 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 at-bats per home run ratio.
To put this in perspective, here is what top MVP candidates Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman have done in that same span going back to June 15:
Acuña: .358 BA | 10 HR | 1.062 OPS | 11.1 K rate | 15.9 AB/HR
Ohtani: .318 BA | 19 HR | 1.239 OPS | 27.5 K rate | 7.9 AB/HR
Freeman: .347 BA | 9 HR | 1.037 OPS | 18.6 K rate | 18.6 AB/HR
Olson has a better home run rate and has struck out approximately 10 percent fewer times than Ohtani during this span. It’s also remarkable to see that his strikeout rate is very similar to the one Freeman has produced, while constructing a OPS almost 200 points lower than Olson’s during this span.
With the speed element, Acuña is producing one of the greatest seasons baseball has seen. But he might not be the only member of his team who can walk away saying he had one of the greatest seasons in Braves history.
Olson is on pace to hit 58 homers, which would be seven more than the franchise record Andruw Jones set in 2005. An NL-leading 39 homers give Olson six more than what Jones had through the Braves’ first 109 games of his record-breaking season.