In the fourth installment of the deep dive series for 2024 we return to the infield with this subject. Michael Massey has been good so far this season and with the negative deep dive last time we have some positivity and optimism with this one. With his start to the season is Massey the future at second for the Royals?
As usual, starting with the basics, Massey is slashing .294/.306/.529 for an OPS of .835 which is really good for a second baseman. Although his slash line is good and a lot of the peripherals are good the injuries have hurt Massey this year. Speaking of peripherals, let’s dive a little deeper into Massey’s stats on the year.
Starting with his walk rate and K rate, we see some contrasting numbers. His K-rate is 14.5%, which is superb, then we look at his walk rate being 2.7%. For context, Salvador Perez has had one season with a walk rate less than Massey’s rate this year, excluding 2020. To reiterate, Massey is walking less than the average Salvy season. Is that concerning? Maybe, but some numbers show how that could be a solid thing.
Looking at Massey’s plate discipline numbers, we see that there has been substantial improvement. He is swinging more often at a 52.6%, but he is making contact at a 85.6% rate. That is a 6% increase from last year and to make things better his Z-contact% is 95.4%. This means when he swings at pitches inside the zone he makes contact 95% of the time. That is better than Luis Arraez’s Z-contact%. Massey also isn’t whiffing as his whiff% is 15.8%, hence why the K-rate is lower than usual.
The plate discipline numbers look amazing for Massey. Throw in some interesting trends in pitch tracking and in his batted ball profile and we can see why he has succeeded. Starting with the pitch tracking, Massey has noticeably not been able to hit fastballs in his career. That hasn’t changed with him hitting .241 and slugging .407 on those offerings. Those are similar numbers to last season as well.
While he doesn’t hit fastballs well, he annihilates breaking balls. He gets breaking pitches 30% of the time in his at-bats and he is hitting .375 and slugging a casual .781 on those pitches. On off speed pitches, he isn’t as good but he is hitting .313 and slugging .438 on them. Overall, his pitch tracking numbers are the opposite of the mindset of “sitting fastball and adjusting to everything else.” He sits on off speed and sort of adjusts to velocity.
The fastball numbers are a little concerning to say the least, but his batted ball profile is where some concerns arise. There is one thing this writer as always had concerns with for Massey and that is his high launch angle. Typically, batters want to stay around the 11 to 12 degree range for launch angle. Massey has had a career average of 18.2 degrees. This year is his lowest launch angle at 15.5 degrees, but there is still concerns with that.
In his batted ball profile, he is hitting grounders at a 44% clip along with a 28.6% flyball rate. That isn’t terrible, but his line drive rate being 19.8% is vastly concerning. For context, last year he was around 30% for all of those rates. The flyball rate is great given his HR/FB rate is 16.7%, but if he was hitting line drives a touch more this wouldn’t be a concern.
While there are concerns with a couple of numbers, Massey has developed in some other key ones. His swing/take numbers have vastly improved from last season. Currently, he is sitting at a value of five runs which is a 17 run improvement from last season. The reason for that is Massey’s approach on pitches in the shadow of the zone as he sat at a negative-25 run value last season. This year he is at a negative-2 run value, an improvement 23 runs.
The last offensive numbers we will dive into are his splits. As a lefty, he has hit any pitcher well with an OPS above .818 against both righties and lefties. He has also been elite with runners on and in scoring position having a wRC+ of 160 and 131 in those scenarios. The one split that is really concerning are he home/away splits. At home, Massey has a wRC+ of 167 with a BB:K of 1.00. Away from Kauffman, Massey has a wRC+ of 72 and has no walks. It is a little concerning that Massey struggles away from Kauffman, but when he is there he is one of the better bats in the lineup.
Lastly, we dive into his defense and it is good. Massey has accrued three DRS and two OAA so far at the keystone. If that defense keeps up don’t be surprised if a Royals second baseman wins a Gold Glove this year, for once. Yes, this writer is still wildly upset Nicky Lopez never won a Gold Glove with the Royals-when he should have. Anyway, Massey has been an elite defender to go along with the elite Royals infield defense.
Michael Massey came into this season as the question mark in the infield and has borderline solidified his spot at second. The bat has been great and while some regression to the mean may happen, a lot of the numbers explain it might not. The defense has always been there for Massey, so the bat being a positive is the icing on the cake. Once he gets healthy, again, the Royals will have their infield set for this year and potentially for a couple of years.
Photo Credit: AP Photo, Colin E. Braley