DataBaseball
2026
Nicky Lopez headshot

2B · 2026

Nicky Lopez

Age
31
B/T
L/R
Height
5' 10"
Weight
186 lb
Number
#33
Born
March 13, 1995 in Naperville, IL, USA
MLB debut
May 14, 2019
Drafted
2016, round 5
College
Creighton
High school
Naperville Central
dbWAR
.2
5 season(s)
PA
200
AVG
.278
OBP
.318
SLG
.322
wRC+
81
100 = avg

Nicky Lopez is a second baseman for the Texas Rangers. In 2026 he hit 1 home run and knocked in 20 RBIs, notching 50 hits across 200 plate appearances in 64 games. His batting average was .278, 14.0% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .318 clip and slugged .322, for an OPS of .640, 11.0% lower than the league mark of .719 — 12th of 15 on his team, and 320th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 81.2 mph off the bat, hit 22.4% of balls in play at 95 mph or better and made contact on 81.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 81 wRC+ puts his offence 19% below average. That comes to 0.2 dbWAR — -4.8 runs with the bat, -0.8 on the bases, +1.3 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+81
wOBA.289
ISO.044
BB%4.5%
WAR.2

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +2.4 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-4.8Baserunning-0.8Position+1.3Replacement+6.7
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

0.3-0.0-0.3242526

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.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP504412018.273.304.273.26416.0%
vs RHP150136381824.279.322.338.29716.0%
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.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHB221000.500.500.500.4460.0%
vs RHB553001.600.600.600.53520.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 157 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 156 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
0.0%
0 barrels
Exit velocity
81.2
mph average
Max exit velo
104.7
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
22.4%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
27.4%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
-1.0°
average
Barrel rate0.0%
Exit velocity81.2 mph
Hard hit rate22.4%
Contact rate81.6%

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.

.474.0876 AB.2229 AB6 AB.15020 AB.37524 AB.31316 AB.18211 AB.37524 AB.18211 AB
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 Nicky Lopez 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.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations200.278.318.322.289
Bases empty1071032600316.252.280.262.247
Runner on first4134121325.353.389.529.400
Runners on937724120616.312.365.403.343
RISP524312017411.279.347.302.300

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

Pitch sequencing

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

ShowBatter
FastballEephus

Select a count to see exactly what Nicky Lopez throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

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

Fastball79.2%1962.81,53547.4%12.5%
Nicky Lopez'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.

Trend
202664200501204932.278.318.322.044.3314.5%16.0%.289-4.8810.2
20251328101044.042.179.042.000.05014.3%14.3%.135-4.2-27-0.3
20241214459612153767.241.312.294.053.2888.3%15.1%.278-12.5780.3

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026101.000041109.001.094.009.00.0216260.0
2025100.100000010.0012.143.000.027.00292-0.0

Head to head

Put Nicky Lopez beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Nicky Lopez

Similar players

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

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.