After a blistering start, Chicago’s rookie slugger has cratered in May. Yet, elite advanced metrics suggest a massive breakout is imminent for the struggling designated hitter in June.
Chicago Cubs rookie Moises Ballesteros is happy that the month of May is finally coming to an end.
After slashing .338/.392/.620 with five home runs, five doubles, and 16 RBI across 27 games in March/April, Ballesteros has been the Cubs' coldest hitter the entire month of May. And it hasn’t been close.
The 22-year-old is just 6-for-57 (.105 batting average) at the plate with one home run, four RBI, eight walks, and 17 strikeouts across 20 games this month. His overall batting average has dropped 106 points during this stretch, and he continues to lose consistent at-bats to Michael Conforto.
This has certainly been a brutal month for Ballesteros. While negative regression was always inevitable following his hot start, the young slugger looks completely lost at the plate right now. He’s swinging at pitches uncharacteristically outside the zone, and that has resulted in a higher strikeout rate in May.
A slump like this was always going to happen to Ballesteros. He’s a rookie in his first full season in the big leagues, and opposing pitchers were going to make adjustments as they got more film on the Cubs designated hitter.
No one expected his slump to be this bad, but all signs point to Ballesteros breaking out of this poor offensive stretch very soon.
He still ranks in the 80th percentile in average exit velocity (91 mph), 71st percentile in barrel rate (11.2%), 89th percentile in hard-hit rate (49%), 70th percentile in launch angle sweet-spot rate (36.7%), and 70th percentile in squared-up rate (27.6%). All those metrics suggest that better days are ahead for him.
It’s definitely an encouraging sign that Ballesteros is still posting strong metrics despite his recent numbers at the plate. He’s continuing to hit the ball hard and has a solid 12.7% walk rate across 20 games in May.
Things will eventually turn around for Ballesteros. He’s too talented to be hitting this poorly and should return to being a productive hitter at the plate within the next few weeks. His metrics prove just that.
The 22-year-old also had some nice at-bats in Saturday’s win over the Cardinals. He had three balls in play with exit velocities over 87 mph, one of which went for a single with two outs in the top of the fourth inning.
There should be no concerns surrounding Ballesteros right now. These types of slumps are going to happen. He’s a 22-year-old still learning to be productive at the Major League level.
