The Long-Awaited Walk of Lenyn Sosa

Note: I wrote this story yesterday, before the news broke that the Blue Jays will call up Charles McAdoo. While they haven't officially announced that Sosa will be cut to make room for McAdoo, it seems like the inevitable corresponding move.

Lenyn Sosa is celebrating a home run in the picture you see above. He hit that home run on May 2. It was his first (and remains his only) home run of the season. Yet, until last night, Sosa somehow had more home runs than walks on the year. The infielder didn't earn a base on balls until his 113th plate appearance of 2026. 

Sosa's walk rate still starts with a goose egg, but at least it doesn't end with a zero anymore. Sitting at 0.9%, it ranks last among major league hitters with at least 50 PA. (Tyler Heineman ranks second-to-last. Nathan Lukes ranks sixth from the bottom. The Blue Jays as a team have the third-worst walk rate in baseball.)

In the grand scheme of things, the difference between one and zero walks is negligible. But I love anything odd and unusual, and Sosa's long walk-less streak definitely fits into that category. It took him 38 games (excluding one in which he only appeared as a pinch-runner) to draw his first free pass. That's the longest such streak to start a season since Willians Astudillo in 2021, who didn't draw a walk until his 40th game of that year. It's also the longest walk-less streak to start a season in Blue Jays history, although that comes with an asterisk, since Sosa played his first 12 games of 2026 with the White Sox. 

The longest walk-less streak at any point in Blue Jays history belongs to Alfredo Griffin. The shortstop didn't walk at all in his final 56 games of the 1984 season. He was then traded to Oakland and spent the next seven seasons with the A's and Dodgers. When he returned to the Blue Jays in 1992, he appeared in another 10 games (with at least one PA) before he drew a walk, so technically, his walk-less streak with Toronto lasted an incredible 66 games – and almost eight years.

For the sake of remembering guys, other Blue Jays with long walk-less streaks include Dámaso García, John McDonald, Darwin Barney, Tony Fernández, Pat Borders, and Garth Iorg.

McDonald, one of my favourite remembersome guys, holds the team record for lowest walk rate in a season (min. 100). In 2009, the infielder walked just once in 156 trips to the plate, a 0.6% rate. Among hitters who played a more regular role, Griffin holds the record with a 0.9% walk rate over 442 PA in 1984. No other Blue Jay with even 300 PA in a season has ever finished with a walk rate under 2.0%. 

Turning back to Sosa, his walk-less streak actually extended several games back into 2025. From last September to this May, he went 175 PA without a base on balls.

So, how does something like this happen? Are opposing pitchers so unafraid of Sosa that they only throw him pitches in the strike zone? Not at all.

Sosa ranks third among all batters this season (min. 50 PA) in out-of-zone rate. Almost 60% of the pitches he's seen have been outside the zone, according to Statcast. The MLB average is 52.6%.

The only two batters who have seen more out-of-zone pitches than Sosa are Moisés Ballesteros and Junior Caminero. And unlike those two, Sosa isn't a serious power threat. He just has really poor plate discipline, and, well, pitchers know it. The righty batter is one of only four hitters (min. 50 PA) with a chase rate over 50%. His opponents are taking advantage.

Let me summarize. About 60% of the pitches Sosa gets are outside the strike zone. He has swung at just over half of them. That means 30% of all pitches opposing pitchers have thrown to Sosa have resulted in a swing on a pitch outside the zone. No wonder he never walks!

It's hard to overstate how much good Sosa could do himself by just keeping the bat on his shoulder more often. It wouldn't work forever. Eventually, opposing pitchers would start challenging him in the zone. Temporarily, however, I think he should just try mentally flipping a coin. Heads, he swings; tails, he lays off. It might sound dumb, but we're talking about a guy with a .207 on-base percentage and a 32 wRC+ this season. Do you really think the coin flip approach would be any worse than whatever approach he's trying right now?

I'll leave you with the sequence of pitches that led to Sosa's first (and who knows, maybe his only) walk of 2026:

It was a garbage time plate appearance – the Jays were down six in the bottom of the ninth – but to his credit, Sosa worked back from an 0-2 hole. That said, all four balls from Marlins lefty Cade Gibson were so far outside that even you or I could have drawn the walk.  

Hopefully, that walk helped Sosa remember how nice it is to trot to first base unencumbered. (He got hit by his first pitch of the season the next day, but I'm sure he prefers reaching base without any searing pain.) The fact that he can bat right-handed and play multiple infield positions has kept him on the roster to this point, but the Blue Jays won't be willing to stomach his .207 OBP forever.