Why has the Guardians’ offense improved? It’s all about the walk

DETROIT — The walk is boring unless it involves Pete Rose sprinting to first base, but it is at the center of the Guardians’ offensive revival. Last season the Guardians had one of baseball’s worst offenses. During the winter, they did little, if anything, to improve it. The front office chose to stay with many of the players responsible for the lowest batting average in team history (.226) to see if they could fix it. They’re making progress, but a change in tactics was needed. “Grant Fink (hitting coach) talked about it with the hitting group,” said manager Stephen Vogt. “He said we need to take more walks. We need to make better swing decisions and scare pitchers back into the strike zone. “When you lay off the borderline pitches, and take them for balls, they have to come into the zone. Then you get better pitches to hit.” The Guardians went into Wednesday night’s game ranked second in the American League with 220 walks through 50 games. At this time last year, they had 162 walks. In May, the Guardians lead the AL with 98 walks, 10 more than the second-place Yankees. “We knew we needed to add more offense this year,” said Vogt. “You’re not always going to get slugging (percentage). We have to look for different ways to get to first base. That’s been the goal of our offense. “We want to touch first base. It doesn’t matter how you get there.” In the AL, the Guardians have four players ranked in the top 23 in walks: Hoskins is the most impressive because he’s not an everyday player. He’s appeared in only 38 games. “My No.1 goal is not being patient,” said Hoskins. “I’m just trying to get a pitch that fits what I like based on what the situation calls for. “I do know that a quality at-bat is pretty contagious. You throw up a couple of quality at-bats in a row, the guy on the mound feels it and the guys in our dugout feel it. That’s when you call yourself an offense.” Hoskins says the lovefest with the walk has to do with executing the Guardians’ nightly plan against the opposing starting pitcher. “It’s more of a byproduct of a full commitment to whatever plan we set out every night based on what the starter has,” he said. “I think we’ve been pretty good at executing what we’re trying to do. That comes and goes with 162 games, but with the type of team we have it’s been an important thing for us.” Kwan has always walked a lot, but since he was dropped out of the leadoff spot on Saturday, he’s been in overdrive. In four games since being moved to the lower third of the lineup, he’s scored five runs and walked seven times. “The walk is super important,” said Kwan. “It’s about having a good plan, trusting the plan and not being afraid to pass the sticks. “It’s the same thing we’ve said for years. We trust each other. No one is trying to be the hero. That’s all that’s happening.” It’s easy to make the connection between the Guardians leading the AL in walks in May and two other critical numbers — wins and runs. The Guardians are 12-6 and lead the big leagues with 99 runs in May. For the season, they rank fourth in runs with 222. The walk is usually viewed as a passive endeavor, but not always. On Friday, the day before Kwan was moved out of the leadoff spot, Ramirez was moved from third to second in the lineup. Since then, he’s hit .450 (9 for 20) with two homers, five RBI, five runs, six walks and seven stolen bases. That offensive outburst is just another reason the Guardians’ offense has improved. The addition of rookies Travis Bazzana and DeLauter has certainly helped as well. Bazzana, who did not start Wednesday, is hitting .299 (20 for 67) with two homers and nine RBI. He’s walked 13 times, struck out 13 times and has a .830 OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage). DeLauter is hitting .273 (45 for 165) with seven homers and 30 RBI. He has more walks (23) than strikeouts (20) with an .831 OPS. “Getting on base is getting on base,” said Bazzana. “We’re putting together a lot of good offensive days where the at-bat quality one through nine is very good. “If we can keep doing that, with our elite pitching, we’re going to win a lot of games.” As Vogt has said more than once, “We have a much different offense than we had last year.”