Myles Straw's Surging Bat Helping Cleveland's Playoff Push

The Guardians centerfielder has been a liability at the plate most of the year, but he seems to have figured something out with a stellar September showing.

Myles Straw has a great chance to win a Gold Glove this year as the best defensive centerfielder in the American League.

For awhile, it's a good thing he was playing well defensively because he looked lost at the plate. He recorded just seven hits in 75 at bats in August (good for an awful .093 batting average).

That's not great for a guy that you signed to a $25 million contract extension back in April.

One month is a small sample size, but he also struggled to reach base in May and June. July was a bit better, but things go so bad in August that he started seeing less regular playing time.

In fairness, he's also been the victim of some pretty bad luck this season. Entering Monday, opponents had recorded an MLB-leading 17 outs above average when he's been batting, which has prevented 14 runs for the Guardians (according to Baseball Savant). Straw also has a .225 batting average on balls put in play, fifth lowest in the A.L. among qualified hitters.

Still, the advanced metrics haven't told a favorable story.

Straw is in the 99th percentile in Swing-and-Miss Rate, and ranks in the 96th percentile in Chase Rate (swinging at pitches outside the strike zone). 

He is also in the first percentile in Expected Slugging Percentage, Barrel Percentage (a percentage of batted balls with the perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle) and second percentile in Hard Hit Percentage (Statcast defines a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher).

In other words ... his offensive numbers have been awful.

But Straw deserves a lot of credit because he has really turned a corner offensively in September and the Guardians sure are glad to see it.

With his triple in the sixth inning on Monday afternoon against Minnesota, Straw recorded a hit in his eighth straight game. That ties a career-long hit streak for him, which he hasn't done since he was a member of the Astros back in 2019. He's hitting .462 (12-for-26) during his streak.

He's now hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games, with a slash line of .389 / .431 / .481 and an .OPS of .913 with six multi-hit games. He's been one of the top six hitters in the league since September 5.

With a postseason berth looming, if Straw can continue to provide an offensive spark at the bottom of the lineup, the Guardians could be a really dangerous team in October.

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