Very Few Players In The 2023 MLB Playoffs Are Prepared To Bunt

Image credit: Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)

In the 2003 Olympics qualifier, for some hard-to-fathom reason, Joe Mauer was left on the bench when Team USA faced Mexico in a game that would determine whether the US would qualify for the 2004 Olympics.

Mauer was finally called on to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning. Trailing by one, Team USA got back-to-back singles to begin the inning. Mauer was called on to pinch hit.

And he was then asked to bunt.

Joe Mauer was the No. 4 prospect in baseball at this time. He’d been the best hitter on any team he’d ever played for at any level. Mauer was not the type of player who was asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt. But Mauer being Mauer, he got the bunt down. 

With runners at second and third, Justin Leone grounded out. Gerald Laird flew out and Team USA lost the chance to defend its goal medal at the 2004 Olympics.

So why do I bring this up some 20 years later—other than the fact that I still can’t explain why USA Manager Frank Robinson didn’t start Mauer, and then decided that Mauer, one of the best pure hitters of the 21st century, was better off bunting so Leone and Laird could try to win it?

I bring it up because what Mauer was asked to do is very difficult. He was asked to bunt even though he had never laid down a sac bunt as a pro. Mauer was drafted in 2001. His first sac bunt as a pro was in 2007. Over his entire pro career, he laid down six sacrifice bunts in more than 9,000 pro plate appearances. Players of Mauer’s caliber rarely are asked to lay down a bunt to move a runner over.

I think about this as I watch the 2023 MLB playoffs and listen to broadcasters suggest good situations for sac bunts. We now live in a world where most all MLB hitters are like Mauer. They’ve rarely been asked to lay down a sac bunt.

The lineups are filled hitters who have rarely if ever been asked to bunt, because sac bunts have disappeared so much from the game.

Here’s a look at how many successful sac bunts each remaining playoff team laid down during the regular season.

Team	SAC
Arizona Diamondbacks	36
Baltimore Orioles	21
Houston Astros	14
Philadelphia Phillies	13
Minnesota Twins	12
Texas Rangers	10
Los Angeles Dodgers	5
Atlanta Braves	2

I’m not trying to debate the virtue of sacrifice bunts here today, though I’m guessing many of you may have some opinions on the matter. I’m just trying to point out that one of the reasons you see so few bunts, is because as fewer and fewer bunts are called, you have a generation of hitters who aren’t really prepped to sacrifice bunt. 

If you ask a hitter who hasn’t laid down a bunt in two years to do so against an elite reliever in the late-innings of a close playoff game, you have no guarantees he can even do it.

There are two hitters remaining in the playoffs who are regular bunters. D-backs shortstop Geraldo Perdomo (14 sac bunts) led the league. Astros catcher Martin Maldonado (12 sac bunts) was second. 

In both cases, these are glove-first players with light bats. It’s not unrealistic to see either of them being asked to bunt if they are at-bat with a runner standing on first. But there aren’t many others who have nearly this much experience squaring up.

D-backs outfielder Corbin Carroll (6 sac bunts) and Phillies outfielder Johan Rojas (6 sac bunts) are the only other players in the postseason with more than five. They both rank among the top 10 in total sac bunts. Carroll and Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott are the leaders among playoff teams in bunts for hit. They each had three.

These are not lineups filled with players who are comfortable bunting.

Atlanta laid down two sacrifice bunts all season (one by Michael Harris II and one by Eddie Rosario). That’s not a MLB record, because last year, the Braves had one sac bunt.

Ronald Acuña Jr., Sean Murphy, Matt Olson and Austin Riley have never had sac bunts as big leaguers. Ozzie Albies last one was in 2018. Orlando Arcia’s last one was in 2019. Travis d’Arnaud’s was in 2016. Marcell Ozuna’s was in 2013. Harris (one sac bunt in 2023 and one in 2022) and Rosario (one sac bunt in 2023 and two in 2011) are the only Braves regulars who have had sac bunts since the pandemic.

So don’t expect to the the Braves lay down many bunts. Don’t look for them from the Dodgers either. They had four sac bunts this year (Miguel Rojas had two, Austin Barnes and Miguel Vargas each had one).

But that doesn’t mean we won’t see any bunts.

We’ve actually seen much more bunting in the postseason so far than we did during the regular season. There have been three successful sacrifice bunts in eight games, one every 195 plate appearances. In the regular season it was one every 429 plate appearances.

That’s a bunt rate that was exceeded by only the D-backs during the regular season. But that was also true last year. There were nine sac bunts in the 2022 postseason, one every 173 plate appearances. In the regular season, it was one bunt every 467 plate appearances.

So we do see more sac bunts in the playoffs than we do during the regular season. Just don’t expect to see many of them.