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The Rays were great at pinch hitting in 2020

The Tampa Bay Rays led the league in WAA (wins above average) at Baseball Reference from two positions in 2020: second base and “pinch hitters.”

Second base shouldn’t be all that surprising as Brandon Lowe went off in 2020 with a .269/.362/.554 line and 150 wRC+ leading the Rays to a 152 wRC+ from 2nd base significantly ahead of the second place New York Yankees (129 wRC+); however, “pinch hitters” isn’t as clear.

The main reason for this likely comes from there being no one hitter that you can pinpoint for the Rays success. The Rays pinch hit 66 times coming from 16 players, with Ji-Man Choi leading the way with 10 plate appearances.