Shea Langeliers Continuing His 2024 Breakout At The Plate

A's catcher Shea Langeliers has finally broke out at the plate after his first two underwhelming seasons.

Jul 27, 2024; Anaheim, California, USA; Oakland Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers (23) celebrates teammates after hitting a three-run home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY Sports / Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY Sports

Oakland A's catcher Shea Langeliers has always been great defensively behind the plate. Going back to his promotion to the big leagues in 2022, Langeliers has had high pop times and caught runners stealing at an elite rate. The area of concern was always his bat and if he would hit well enough to take on a starting catcher role.

After Langeliers was traded to Oakland as part of the Matt Olson trade in 2022, he was assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas and excelled there. He was a Futures Game selection that year, winning MVP of that game, and was awarded Baseball America's Triple-A All-Star. In 92 games with Las Vegas, he slashed .283 / .366 / .510 with 40 extra base hits (including 19 home runs).

However once he was promoted to the A's, he struggled at the plate. Regression is expected, going from a hitter-friendly league in the PCL and facing Triple-A talent to the major leagues can be quite shocking. Yet in his second season, where he got 448 at-bats, he was still failing to tap into the bat he displayed in 2022 at Triple-A.

His first season he struck out at a 34.6% clip and walked at a 5.9% of the time. Those numbers improved in 2023 to 29.2 K% and 6.9 BB%. Now in 2024 those numbers are the best they have been, Langeliers is striking out 26.8% and walking 7.6% of the time. The consistent improvement is very encouraging and in a perfect world those numbers will continue to improve as both those rates are slightly below average.

The real improvement for Langeliers has been the power. He is currently sitting at a .464 slugging percentage which is the best of his career and 32nd best in all of major league baseball. He has hit 22 home runs this season, which is tied for his career high, and he is on pace to have more extra base hits this year (currently 39) than he did last season (45). According to Baseball Savant, Langeliers holds a 14.5 Barrel%, which tracks how many swings put in play were hit on the barrel of the bat, that percentage is 12th best in all of MLB.

Shea Langeliers reached base in 10 consecutive plate appearances with his walk in the second inning tonight.

Per Elias, the last A’s player to reach base via hit, walk or hit-by-pitch in 10 or more consecutive plate appearances was Scott Hatteberg (10): 04/09/2003 -- 04/11/2003.

— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) August 15, 2024

Langeliers led the A's offense in a series win over the New York Mets, by going 7-for-11 with three doubles, a home run, one walk, and four runs batted in. Since the All-Star Break, Langeliers is batting .288 with a .977 OPS and smashing five home runs, along with six doubles, in 21 games.

The A's clubhouse chose Langeliers as their breakout pick before the season began, with Aledmys Díaz even predicting a J.T. Realmuto-esque campaign.

Langeliers looks to be poised for a huge second half of the season. He has been one of the best sluggers on the A's, behind Brent Rooker, and will hopefully continue to be so. If the numbers suggest anything, it is that Langeliers will build off of this season and be even better next year.