Article: Infield Hits Are Out of Fashion in Toronto

[Leo Morgenstern]

If you’ve been following our work here at Jays Centre this season, I don’t need to tell you that the Blue Jays have been going through a bit of a power outage. We’ve covered the topic extensively. So has every other blog, newspaper, fan forum, TV show, podcast, and town crier that covers the Blue Jays. A lack of power was the defining story of the first month of the season. Yet, with all the talk about home runs, I don’t think many fans have noticed that something else is missing, too. Something that couldn’t be more different from the long ball. The Blue Jays rank last in the majors in infield hits. 

Infield hits are exciting. An infield hit is a race between the runner and the defense (that the runner wins). It’s the kind of play that makes your heart race almost as fast as the batter is running down the line. He makes a “safe” signal with his arms as he runs through first. The umpire does the same. Perhaps you do too, as you leap up from your couch or your seat at the stadium. Just as exciting are the infield hits on which the defense doesn’t even bother to make a play. There wouldn’t be a point. The runner is already safe at first. Here’s a link to watch a few of my favourite Blue Jays infield hits this year. Unfortunately, there haven’t been many.

Through 31 games (prior to first pitch on May 2), the Blue Jays have 13 infield hits (per FanGraphs). No other team has fewer than 18. The league median is 23.5. The league-leading Brewers have 44 infield hits – more than three times as many as the Jays. To put it another way, the Blue Jays have legged out infield hits on just 3.8% of their groundballs this season. The team with the next-lowest infield hit rate, the Red Sox, has converted 5.5% of their grounders into infield singles. The league average is 7.3%.

With 13 infield singles in 31 games, Toronto is on pace for just 68 by the end of the year. Last year, they had 110. The year before, 117. Dating back to 2002 (that's as far back as the records go), the Blue Jays have never had fewer than 91 infield hits in a full season. No team has had fewer than 75. Of course, all 30 teams had fewer than 68 infield hits during the shortened 2020 season, but the White Sox led the league that year with 64. That’s only four fewer than Toronto’s 162-game pace right now! 

Much like my piece from yesterday about a mysterious lack of triples in Toronto, this is more a fun bit of trivia than anything else. After all, infield hits aren’t inherently good or bad. I ran the numbers using data from every team season since 2002, excluding 2020. I found no meaningful correlation between infield hits and scoring runs. I wasn't surprised. Sure, all else being equal, a team with more hits will score more runs. But all else isn't equal. Infield hits, as you might imagine, are slightly negatively correlated with home runs and isolated power. So, teams that rack up infield hits are less likely to rack up homers. I presume you can see why that might be a problem. 

This is another reason why Toronto’s lack of infield hits is so odd. With 21 home runs and 13 infield hits through 31 games in 2025, the Blue Jays are on pace for a combined total of 178 home runs and infield hits this season. That would be the lowest combined total of those two statistics on record. (The 2013 Marlins finished with 95 home runs and 103 infield hits, good for a total of 198.) As I said, a lack of infield hits on its own isn’t a problem. However, a lack of infield hits combined with a lack of power certainly is. When a team isn’t hitting for extra bases, the lineup needs to manufacture runs in other ways. The Blue Jays haven't been doing that. Not only do they rank last in MLB in infield hits, but they also rank among the bottom half of teams in bunt hits, stolen bases, and FanGraphs baserunning value. Meanwhile, they rank among the top half of teams in less desirable categories like caught stealing and GIDP. 

I don't want to make too big a deal out of this. Like I said, the primary reason I wrote this article is because I think Toronto's lack of infield hits is an interesting bit of trivia, nothing more. Still, as the Blue Jays continue to struggle in the power department, it wouldn't hurt if they started doing more of the little things right. And if nothing else, it would make their power-lacking brand of baseball more exciting to watch.

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[mphenhef]

I would be interested to know some things that could relate.  Ie what is the Jays ground ball rate relative to other years and teams?  Are they hitting grounders harder than other teams which would lead to legging out  less hits.  What percentage of their grounders are hit by slowpokes like Kirk and Vlad?

[Leo Morgenstern]

1 hour ago, mphenhef said:

I would be interested to know some things that could relate.  Ie what is the Jays ground ball rate relative to other years and teams?  Are they hitting grounders harder than other teams which would lead to legging out  less hits.  What percentage of their grounders are hit by slowpokes like Kirk and Vlad?

Great point. If this trend continues well into May I’d definitely be interested to do a deeper dive on the reasons behind it