Luis Ares is the funniest paradox in baseball.
Venezuela leads in batting average … He rarely hits the ball hard. He’s second in the National League in OPS … Although he rarely hits barrels, Ares is an elite hitter without doing the two fundamental things hitters want to achieve in order to win: make strong contact and lift the ball.
Ares, who is coming off his first batting title in 2023, has a .471 batting average in 2023. And he has a hard hit rate of 25.5%: he’s hit nearly half of his at-bats. A quarter of those at-bats ended up on the hard drive.
Ares has a 1.173 OPS. But he only hit one ball, meaning he hit the ball with the right velocity and departure angle for an extra-base hit or a home run. Ares hit a double, triple and hit a home run in the same game. First cycle in Marlin history Last week.
This might be the most unusual of all: Arráez boasts a .471 batting average and 1.173 OPS in 2023 at 99.5 mph. Yes, one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball never hit a ball over 100 mph.
Two hundred and forty-six batters hit the ball harder than Arrays, according to the Statcast exit velocity rankings. There are more than two hundred and fourteen pots. Three hundred ninety-four people have hit a ball over 100 mph at least once. Arráez is a better hitter than almost anyone, and few have the feat of hitting a batting title or a cycle.
So how do you do it? How does Ares do what he does without hitting his stat sheet hard relative to his numbers? Here are three reasons.
1) Hit the ball everywhere
Ares is a true all-field hitter, and that’s one of his most valuable talents.
The more ground a defense has to cover against a hitter, the harder it is to get putouts. Ares tries to cover all of the opposing teams.
Arráez has one of the most consistent hits of any MLB hitter this season.
Very few spread the ball in every third of the field. Arráez is in the company of Paul Goldschmidt, JD Martínez, Manny Machado and Cuban-Mexican Randy Arosarena.
Arráez’s “all-terrain” approach is a way to pressure opposing teams. Another way: don’t give outs.
The first part of it he didn’t strike. Ares has just four strikeouts in 57 plate appearances this season, a “K” rate of 7.0%.
Low strikeout rates, 2023
Jose Ramirez: 6.7%
Luis Ares: 7.0%
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 8.0%
Will Smith: 8.3%
Brandon Nimmo: 9.0%
But the other part is also important: Ares doesn’t hit for easy outs either.
Until Sunday, he hadn’t given up a single ball this season. Small balls to the box are automatically out, almost at the level of strikeouts. Zero lobs and four strikeouts means opposing defenses always have to make plays to retire Ares. The pitcher rarely beats him, and he never beats himself.
Ares discovered the so-called sweet spot (Sweet place, according to Statcast) with a launch angle on nearly half of the connections he makes, meaning he hits the ball between eight and 32 degrees, including highly productive fly balls and line drives. The Sweet spot ratio is 46.8% D’Arrays is the highest in the majors.
3) Handle any type of pitch
Whatever you throw at Ares, he’s capable of hitting the ball. He is just as effective against fastballs as he is against fastballs.
Here are his 2023 numbers against different types of pitches:
Straight vs.: AVG’s .455 AVG / SLG’s .697
Pitches that break vs: .500 AVG / .625 SLG
Slow shipping vs: .625 AVG / .625 SLG
He does his damage when he sees the fastball he can drive, and when he shows up for hits against secondary pitches. Also, he rarely swings and misses any delivery he sees.
All of this makes Ares the type of hitter that frustrates pitchers to no end. He makes takedowns as difficult as possible and doesn’t need Aaron Judge’s breakaway speed to do it.
