C · 2026

Kyle Higashioka

Age: 36
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 202 lb
Number: #11

Born: April 20, 1990 in Huntington Beach, CA, USA
MLB debut: April 10, 2017
Drafted: 2008, round 7
High school: Edison
Salary, 2026: $6.75M

dbWAR: 3.1
PA: 186
AVG: .218
OBP: .306
SLG: .370
wRC+: 92

Kyle Higashioka is a catcher for the Texas Rangers. In 2026 he hit 7 home runs and knocked in 18 RBIs, notching 36 hits across 186 plate appearances in 53 games. His batting average was .218, 10.5% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .306 clip and slugged .370, for an OPS of .676, 6.0% lower than the league mark of .719 — 9th of 15 on his team, and 261st of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 87.0 mph off the bat, hit 37.6% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 5.1% of them and made contact on 73.7% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 92 wRC+ puts his offence 8% below average. That comes to 0.7 dbWAR — -2.1 runs with the bat, -0.3 on the bases, +3.3 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+92

wOBA.305

ISO.152

BB%10.2%

WAR.7

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +7.1 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	54	47	12	3	6	12	.255	.352	.489	.368	22.2%
vs RHP	132	118	24	4	13	35	.203	.288	.322	.279	26.5%

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	4	4	1	0	0	0	.250	.250	.250	.223	0.0%
vs RHB	14	10	7	1	1	0	.700	.643	1.400	.737	0.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 116 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 117 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 5.1%
Exit velocity: 87.0
Max exit velo: 107.1
Hard hit: 37.6%
Sweet spot: 37.6%
Launch angle: 17.1°

Barrel rate5.1%

Exit velocity87.0 mph

Hard hit rate37.6%

Contact rate73.7%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Kyle Higashioka hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by

By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	186	—	—	—	—	—	—	.218	.306	.370	.305
Bases empty	104	96	23	5	5	8	29	.240	.298	.417	.314
Runner on first	40	36	7	1	3	4	7	.194	.275	.306	.266
Runners on	82	69	13	2	13	11	18	.188	.317	.304	.293
RISP	42	33	6	1	10	7	11	.182	.357	.303	.319

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Pitch sequencing

What Kyle Higashioka throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

EephusFastball

Select a count to see exactly what Kyle Higashioka throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2026.


Eephus	64.7%	33	40.9	1,122	21.2%	0.0%
Fastball	35.3%	18	47.6	1,339	27.8%	14.3%

Kyle Higashioka's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters.

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2026	53	186	36	7	18	0	19	47	.218	.306	.370	.152	.261	10.2%	25.3%	.305	-2.1	92	0.7
2025	93	327	73	11	47	3	20	72	.241	.291	.403	.162	.279	6.1%	22.0%	.302	-3.6	96	1.0
2024	79	263	54	17	45	2	15	74	.220	.263	.476	.256	.237	5.7%	28.1%	.314	+0.5	102	1.5

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

																			Trend
2026	3	0	3.0	0	0	0	8	7	0	1	21.00	9.42	3.00	0.0	3.0	503	226	-0.2	—

Head to head

Put Kyle Higashioka beside up to three others.

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Kyle Higashioka

Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Brandon ValenzuelaTOR

wRC+: 94
HR: 8
AVG: .230
WAR: 0.9

Very close

Tommy TroyAZ

wRC+: 85
HR: 4
AVG: .223
WAR: 0.1

Very close

Mike YastrzemskiATL

wRC+: 95
HR: 8
AVG: .230
WAR: 0.4

Moisés BallesterosCHC

wRC+: 81
HR: 6
AVG: .225
WAR: -0.2

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.