Coming into the 2025 season, Jarred Kelenic was already on the hot seat. After having a disappointing first season with the Atlanta Braves, there was seemingly no spot left for the 25-year-old once Acuña returned.
Even after the infurating suspension of the Braves big offseason acquisition, Jurickson Profar, Kelenic’s struggles looked like he was playing himself off the team.
However, in the last week or so, the lefty has suddenly found a new approach at the plate, and while he hasn’t been hitting the ball well, he’s been getting on base at a rate he’s never seen before.
Jarred Kelenic taking his walks is just what the Braves needed
Through the Braves first three series, it was arguable that Kelenic was unplayable. The right fielder had started eight of the team’s nine games and had just four hits to show for it. He had a .154/.154/.269 slashline, which came out to a 13 wRC+, 25th worst in baseball through April 6.
Kelenic’s 46.2% strikeout rate was third-worst in the majors, behind only Paul DeJong of the Nationals and Ryan Kreidler of the Tigers. Even with poor luck on balls in play, he hadn’t taken a single walk and his high K-rate didn’t leave him much room to be a good hitter.
That turned around during the series against the Phillies. Over the last four games, Kelenic has walked 41.7% of the time while striking out just 16.7% of the time. He only has two hits, but the high on-base percentage has given him a nice .286/.583/.429 slashline over his last 12 plate appearances.
It would be easy to assume that before these four games, Kelenic had been chasing plenty of balls, leading to him not taking free passes, however, that’s not quite the adjustment he’s made.
His 29.8% chase-rate wasn’t elite by any means, but it was still better than players like Mike Trout and Max Muncy, guys who have no issue taking walks. That being said, it wasn’t great, ranking in the 41th percentile.
Since the start of the series against Philadelphia, Kelenic simply won’t chase. His 9.1% chase-rate is 10th best among MLB players with at least five plate appearances. Meanwhile, his swing-rate on balls in the strike zone has relatively stayed the same, increasing from 69.8% to 71.4%.
Overall, Kelenic swung 37.7% of the time in a four game span, as opposed to a 51% rate. He’s increased his contact on balls in the zone as well to 85%, up from 78.4%
Even though he hasn’t hit the ball well yet – his average exit velocity in this span is only 81 MPH – the new approach bodes well. If Kelenic continues to take pitches of the zone while maintaining a similar contact rate on pitches in the zone, he’ll only be setting himself up for success.
For an offense that’s scuffling, the team needs all the base runners they can get.
