As usual, offense lags early in MLB season

NEW YORK — The batting average across Major League Baseball dropped seven percentage points to .242 in the first two weeks of the season, while the average time of a nine-inning game rose two minutes to 2:39 in the second season with the pitch clock in action.

MLB officials implemented restrictions on defensive shifts last year, when the batting average rose to .249 in the first 14 days from .230 the comparable period in 2022 and .235 in 2021. Last year’s final average of .248 was up from .243 in 2022 and .244 in 2021 — it had been in the .250s for most of the decade in the 2010s and the .260s in the early 2000s.

The average rises during the course of the season as the weather warms.

“No question it’s getting harder to hit,’” Kansas City Royals outfielder Hunter Renfroe said Friday. “I think these pitchers are getting better and better every single year. You’ve got younger and younger arms coming up that people have less and less history against. And I think it’s one those things where it’s going to continue to evolve, and the hitters are going to evolve, as well.

“But to this point, yeah, it’s a lot harder to hit now than it ever has been, there’s no question about it.”

The average four-seam fastball velocity is 94.2 mph this season, up from a record 94.0 mph last year. It was 93.2 mph when Renfroe was a rookie in 2017. The total of 100 mph or more pitches rose from 1,107 in 2017 to 3,880 last year.

Right-handed batting average fell to .240 from .254 in the opening two weeks, while lefthanded batting average rose two percentage points to .244.

Home runs per game declined to 2.0 from 2.3.

“At the beginning of the season, all the pitchers are healthy, they’re not tired yet. I think it’ll trend in our direction a little bit as the season goes on,” said the Colorado Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon, the 2017 National League batting champion.

Stolen bases remained at an average of 2.4 per game, though the success rate declined slightly to 78.6% from 81.2%.