A quick look at Strikeout-to-Walk ratio, for hitters (2026, Part 2)

Last time we talked about the world's best walkers, we used a threshold of 300 ABs and looked at guys who had more walks than strikeouts. Today we'll do that again, but in order for the article to actually be interesting, I'm gonna throw a little more from the Wonderful World of Walks your way as well. First, the good stuff. This should look pretty familiar to the first article:

Batter	BB	K	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BA	SLG	OBP	OPS	OPS+
Gerardo Perdomo	81	73	137	588	491	64	124	18	6	9	47	.253	.369	.359	.728	104
Juan Soto	65	51	90	380	312	50	87	8	2	23	56	.279	.538	.401	.940	158
Liam Hicks	50	48	125	494	426	62	122	13	1	17	75	.286	.441	.369	.810	130
Luis Arraez	28	25	133	579	530	64	168	29	7	6	55	.317	.432	.349	.781	115
Steven Kwan	72	55	132	548	464	68	127	17	2	2	27	.274	.332	.374	.706	100

While we have the same four guys as before in Perdomo, Soto, Arraez, and Kwan. We now have the new dark horse contender. The man, the myth, the mitt; Liam Hicks.

Hicks is the exact sort of player most smart front offices simply love to have: a young catcher with a great batting eye. Hicks is only in his second season, but has a career slash line of .269/.359/.400, meaning his eye has already developed. It's hard to fully slump when you're still getting walked; and it's harder to lose the ability to differentiate between a ball and a strike, than say it would be to lose pop-time after a torn ACL. Hicks was traded to Tampa Bay at the deadline, which should surprise no one. While the Rays could certainly sell high on him during the offseason, something tells me they may want to hang on to this guy.

There are a few other players that don't have more walks than strikeouts, but are still absolute walking machines (AWMs). I'd like to talk about them now.

Batter	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	RBI	BA	SLG	OBP	OPS	OPS+
Bryce Harper	141	602	494	85	135	28	3	27	100	125	80	.273	.506	.392	.898	139
Yordan Alvarez	140	610	498	92	157	29	1	37	97	106	94	.315	.600	.433	1.033	190
Miguel Vargas	139	611	512	94	129	30	1	30	86	107	77	.252	.490	.364	.854	140
Kevin McGonigle	137	615	526	87	144	25	3	14	83	84	59	.274	.413	.374	.787	122
Xavier Edwards	137	574	500	59	141	17	6	6	65	77	51	.282	.376	.361	.737	111
TJ Rumfield	137	552	477	57	139	26	2	14	64	77	64	.291	.442	.384	.826	120

Some quick hits:

- Bryce Harper has 100 walks, leading all of MLB.

- Yordan Alvarez continues to show us why he's the scariest lefty/lefty left fielder since Barry Bonds himself.

- Despite their young ages, infielders Miguel Vargas and Kevin McGonigle are looking right at home in the AL Central and the big leagues in general. There's a good chance McGonigle gets invited to the 'more walks than strikeouts table' in the next installment if he keeps up the current pace.

Relatively-unknown-before-this-year players like Xavier Edwards and TJ Rumfield are surely on the radars of every front office and fantasy baseball nut after the years they've had. It's not that these guys are walking a ton either, they just aren't striking out much. Given Miami and Colorado's situations, they're likely to be available as well. Rumfield's stat line is likely to silence any of the usual murmurings about offensive production at Coors Field; he has a higher OBP on the road this year than at home (.391 > .377).

We'll take a look at these numbers again at the end of the season. Hicks and Arraez are very close with just a few more walks than strikeouts, while McGonigle is only one walk away from being at an even 1:1. How will they finish? Nobody knows! Stay tuned!