How Anthony Santander turned his 2024 season around

Since June 1st, who leads the league in home runs? Is it the single season AL HR record holder, Aaron Judge? Is it the freak two-way superstar that hits home runs out of Dodger Stadium, Shohei Ohtani? Or is it the Orioles' budding young shortstop, Gunnar Henderson?

None of the above. The answer is almost hard to believe: 29-year old, switch-hitting, Orioles right-fielder Anthony Santander.

Santander has mashed 18 bombs in the past 43 games — a 68 homer pace. The next closest is Ohtani with 16 and Judge with 15. When you're out-hitting those superstars, you know you're in good company.

In addition to his power, Santander is also hitting .278 with a .965 OPS and 37 RBIs (third best in that stretch).

What makes this run even more improbable is that Santander started the season pretty cold. In his first 51 games, Santander had a .211 AVG and .712 OPS to go along with 9 homeruns and 27 RBIs.

Since June 1st, Santander more than tripled his homerun total, boosted his average by more than 30 points and his OPS by more than 100 points

His 27 total home runs puts him at fifth most in the league, more than many of the game's best hitters, including Juan Soto and Bryce Harper.

What explains Santander's improvements at the plate? It appears he has made a significant improvement against hitting fastballs.

In his first 51 games, his fastball runs above average (wFA) was -1.9. Among 155 qualified hitters, this put him in the bottom 25% of players in baseball.

However, in the next 43 games, he improved to a 2.3 wFA, a 4.2 run increase in a very short period of time.

Santander, who has always struggled with his plate discipline, has also been more patient at the plate. In the same span of time, he improved his O-Swing % (percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone) from 40.6% to 35.8%, a near 5% change. By laying off pitches outside the zone and swinging at better ones, he has found increased success.

Santander has made an already deep Orioles lineup even deeper. In fact, after having the second-lowest OPS among qualified Orioles in their first 55 games, his .831 OPS is only behind Gunnar Henderson for the team lead.

Santander's June and July outburst has been massive for this team and for him as a player. If he keeps this up, he will easily put up the best season of his career.

And, with an OPS that puts him in the top 25 in baseball, he will be on opponents' radars as one of the more feared bats in the league.