LF · 2026
Taylor Ward
- Age
- 33
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 6' 0"
- Weight
- 205 lb
- Number
- #27
- Born
- December 14, 1993 in Dayton, OH, USA
- MLB debut
- August 14, 2018
- Drafted
- 2012, round 31
- College
- Fresno State
- High school
- Shadow Hills
- Salary, 2026
- $12.2M
- dbWAR
- 6.2 3 season(s)
- PA
- 529
- AVG
- .242
- OBP
- .374
- SLG
- .342
- wRC+
- 111 100 = avg
Taylor Ward is a left fielder for the Baltimore Orioles. In 2026 he hit 7 home runs and knocked in 30 RBIs, notching 105 hits across 529 plate appearances in 117 games. His batting average was .242, level with the league average of .244. He reached base at a .374 clip and slugged .342, for an OPS of .716, level with the league mark of .719 — 7th of 13 on his team, and 196th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 88.9 mph off the bat, hit 38.7% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 4.9% of them and made contact on 80.4% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 111 wRC+ puts his offence 11% above average. That comes to 1.5 dbWAR — +6.5 runs with the bat, -1.4 on the bases, -8.3 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.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +14.5 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.
WAR by season
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 150 | 120 | 31 | 4 | 28 | 28 | .258 | .393 | .417 | .362 | 18.7% |
| vs RHP | 379 | 313 | 74 | 3 | 59 | 80 | .236 | .367 | .313 | .322 | 21.1% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 327 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 326 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 4.9% 16 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 88.9 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 109.5 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 38.7% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 37.7% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 14.8° average
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.
Situational hitting
How Taylor Ward hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 529 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .242 | .374 | .342 | .333 |
| Bases empty | 336 | 274 | 72 | 4 | 4 | 57 | 65 | .263 | .399 | .361 | .354 |
| Runner on first | 104 | 93 | 20 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 28 | .215 | .298 | .258 | .262 |
| Runners on | 193 | 159 | 33 | 3 | 26 | 30 | 43 | .208 | .332 | .308 | .297 |
| RISP | 89 | 66 | 13 | 3 | 23 | 19 | 15 | .197 | .371 | .379 | .339 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 117 | 529 | 105 | 7 | 30 | 4 | 87 | 108 | .242 | .374 | .342 | .099 | .305 | 16.4% | 20.4% | .333 | +6.5 | 111 | 1.5 | |
| 2025 | 157 | 663 | 132 | 36 | 103 | 4 | 75 | 175 | .228 | .317 | .475 | .247 | .257 | 11.3% | 26.4% | .341 | +14.0 | 117 | 2.7 | |
| 2024 | 156 | 663 | 144 | 25 | 75 | 6 | 63 | 163 | .246 | .323 | .426 | .179 | .294 | 9.5% | 24.6% | .328 | +8.4 | 110 | 2.0 |
Head to head
Put Taylor Ward beside up to three others.
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
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.