It's almost impossible to watch Odubel Herrera at the plate and not come away thinking, This guy definitely strikes out at least once a game.
He's mostly done away with his signature knack for taking all the time in the world to step in and out of the batter's box in between pitches, but this is still a veteran who is prone to flip his bat on foul balls, chase a pitch in the dirt without any balance whatsoever and even fake a swing -- twice -- before the pitcher actually delivers the ball.
And yet, on a resurgent 2018 Philadelphia Phillies team that features no shortage of big or emerging names, it's Herrera who's most driving a club that, after one week of May ball, sits just 0.5 games behind the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves.
Jake Arrieta (3-1, 3.15 ERA) has brought seriousness to a rotation that's showcased lots of upside, Rhys Hoskins has oozed poise with a .428 on-base percentage and Maikel Franco has defied his own trajectory with four homers in his last 15 games. But Herrera is the constant of the Phillies' 19-15 start, and he's both bucking the trend of baseball and cementing himself as one of the game's best outfielders in the process.
For as unorthodox and disoriented as Herrera can look at the plate, the compact Venezuelan sure reaches base a whole heck of a lot. There hasn't been a single one of the 33 games he's played in 2018, in fact, when he didn't find a bag, and his streak of games with either a hit, walk, error, etc. actually dates four games into the 2017 season. No one since Jimmy Rollins in 2015-16 has reached base in that many consecutive games for the Phils, and no one since Matt Holliday went 45 straight in 2015 has anyone in the majors accomplished such a feat.
But what's most impressive -- and most unusual -- about Herrera's streak, which has him batting .341 (eighth in MLB) after a month of the season, is how rarely he's struck out. Fewer strikeouts can obviously improve a hitter's average, but consider that J.D. Martinez, the .349-hitting Boston Red Sox outfielder, has almost double the amount of K's (38) as Herrera (21). To put it simply, Odubel is putting the ball in play. And for a free swinger whose annual strikeout rates have hung above 20 percent, Herrera's current mark of 15.3 percent is both a career best and a staunch contrast to a league that's off to its most strikeout-filled start ever.
Avoiding strikeouts in a game battling historic proportions of them isn't the only thing Herrera is doing better than, well, almost every outfielder in baseball. As Philly.com's Scott Lauber noted, Martinez, Mookie Betts, Nick Markakis and Mike Trout are the only OFs who, across the board, have better numbers than Herrera's .341/.401/.938 line. And it might not be long before the Phillies' fiery standout rivals them in the home run category, which sounds comical until you realize that Herrera, whose single-season high is 15, is currently on pace for something like 24 bombs. On April 27, when he hit two homers on the same night against the Braves, most figured it was a fluke of power -- until, nine days later, he did the same thing against the San Francisco Giants.
As is often the case when talking baseball in spring, much of Herrera's production ultimately makes up only a small sample size in a sport that's all about the long haul. In that way, it's almost a microcosm of the Phillies' 2018 season.
For now, though, it makes it almost impossible to watch Herrera at the plate and not come away thinking, This guy is definitely driving the Phillies and is one of the best outfielders in the game.
