Lawrence Butler‘s remarkable 2024 campaign has catapulted him to breakout status, solidifying his position as one of the season’s most pleasant surprises. As the Oakland Athletics’ season draws to a close, Butler has caught fire once again, delivering a scorching September performance with a 156 wRC+ – a top 30 mark among qualified hitters. A closer examination of Butler’s profile reveals a promising young hitter with an enticing blend of skills. He consistently demonstrates a strong barrel rate and hard-hit ability, complemented by an above-average swinging strike rate and speed.
These impressive traits, among others, underscore Butler’s potential for sustained success and make him an exciting prospect to watch.
September Changes for Lawrence Butler
In addition to continuing to make consistently hard contact with a 47.8 HardHit%, there has been a noticeable adjustment on a pitch level basis. Here are some distinct differences observed in September versus his numbers up until that point:
| Statistic | Start of Season – August | September |
| O-Swing% | 29.2% | 37.6% |
| Z-Swing% | 70.0% | 70.9% |
| Swing% | 46.2% | 50.9% |
| Contact% | 75.6% | 78.6% |
| SwingingStrike% | 11.3% | 10.9% |
There is a more aggressive approach overall with all of his swing metrics increasing in September. Along with that, he is making more overall contact and swinging and missing less. This is all occurring while not making a substantial sacrifice in quality of contact and the results have been fantastic.
Furthermore, a notable improvement for Butler in September has been his improvement in 2 strike counts. In September, he has a 127 wRC+ in all 2 strike counts compared to a 78 wRC+ for the season in these situations. Many hitters have shown the proclivity to shorten up and decrease bat speed to make contact with their 2 strike approach. So far, Butler has not conformed to that standard thought. His bat speed in all count situations for September is 72.49 MPH and a swing length of 6.96 feet. Butler’s changes in 2 strike counts are negligible with his bat speed at 72.39 MPH and swing length at 6.89 feet. The results are tough to argue with, although it will be interesting to see how this plays out over a larger sample and how the adjustments will be made from the pitcher’s side.
Lawrence Butler is batting .324 (11-for-34) with two-strikes this month (13 games), 4th best in AL; League Avg: .178.#Athletics pic.twitter.com/y3nDjFVWbK
— Inside Edge (@IE_MLB) September 18, 2024
Butler’s Platoon Splits
Being a left-handed hitter, there are always concerns with how they handle same-handed pitching. There are many examples of quality hitters whose full potential is ultimately capped by not being a full-time player due to their inability to hit same-handed pitching. In the case of Butler, we can start to see some possible blemishes in this regard.
For the season, Butler has faced 337 right-handed pitchers compared to only 80 left-handed pitchers. This indicates that the A’s want to protect him against same-handed pitching early in his career. However, he has performed admirably against both handedness of pitcher. He is slashing .286/.313/.545 versus left-handed pitchers versus .264/.326/.505 versus right-handed pitching. While it takes a much larger sample size to determine a hitter’s true platoon skill, Butler has clearly shown the capability to not only handle same-handed pitching but be almost as productive as he is against right-handed pitching.
Some approach differences can be picked up on versus different pitcher handedness. Although Butler takes walks at a slightly below-average rate overall, that number significantly decreases against left-handed pitching. Butler struggles with patience, walking just 3.8 percent of the time against same-handed pitchers, and also hits the ball on the ground 60.7 percent of the time.
So, even with the surface-level numbers looking very good, there are still some elements to clean up. Notably, Butler’s strikeout rate remains manageable at 26.3 percent, despite his ground-ball-heavy approach and limited walks.
Conclusion
Butler has been one of the best hitters in baseball in the second half of the season. He has the seventh-best wRC+ among hitters with at least 200 plate appearances post-All-Star Break. Butler only trailing some of the marquee names in the sport. Butler’s breakout stretch makes him one of the most thrilling young players, boasting elite power-contact balance alongside just seven other players.
Main Photo: © Eakin Howard-Imagn Images
