Will Atlanta Braves Set MLB All-Time Strikeout Record in 2022?

Atlanta Braves Fourth-Worst Strikeout Offender – Adam Duvall

Adam Duvall doesn’t have a lot of room for rough stretches. Over his nine major-league seasons, he has a .229 average. If Duvall isn’t cranking homers then his bat creates a massive hole in the lineup. Right now he is hitting a minuscule .188 and has 59 strikeouts in 46 games. 

It’s easy to accept the holes in his profile when he’s clobbering moonshots and hitting .900 with RISP (not officially). However, during times such as these, his inability to get on base or even put the ball in play shines so brightly in your eyes that you may prefer staring directly into the sun rather than look at his stats.

In 2021, Duvall led the league in RBI and was a key mid-season re-acquisition for the soon-to-be heavy-weight champions of the baseball world. I’d like to tell you the good news is that Duvall’s current K-Rate of 33.1% is much higher than what he posted last year.

Sorry, I can’t. Last year Duvall was the only player on the Braves with more than 100 plate appearances with a strikeout rate over 30%. He finished the season with a 31.9% strikeout rate. So, he’s kind of in line with that now.

In fact, of all Braves players with more than 68 PAs last year, Duvall had the worst K% on the team. The only other players to surpass him had very small sample sizes. Duvall was the worst among all regular players.

Will Adam Duvall turn it around? Geez, I hope so.

Basically, he’s either going to hit homers or he’s going to be terrible. Boom or bust.

Two months into the season, Duvall is sitting on just two homers. He has just nine extra-base hits and a .269 slugging percentage. If you are a gambling person, wagering on Duvall to get out in any given plate appearance is a pretty safe bet.

Maybe the underlying stats show signs of hope?
No. I would tell you to take a look at his Baseball Savant page but… it hurts worse than watching Donald Trump stare directly into a solar eclipse without any protective eyewear.

You know what? Feel the pain.

Duvall has a history of falling into such epic slumps that teams can’t afford to use a major-league roster spot on him. If things don’t turn around soon, the slugger may find himself in that unenviable position soon. The outlook is not good right now. Let’s hope he can figure it out.