DataBaseball
2026
Jose Fernandez headshot

DH · 2026

Jose Fernandez

Age
23
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 3"
Weight
215 lb
Number
#11
Born
September 22, 2003 in Cumana, Venezuela
MLB debut
March 31, 2026
dbWAR
-.1
1 season(s)
PA
177
AVG
.255
OBP
.289
SLG
.352
wRC+
76
100 = avg

Jose Fernandez is a designated hitter for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2026 he hit 3 home runs and knocked in 15 RBIs, notching 42 hits across 177 plate appearances in 53 games. His batting average was .255, 4.5% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .289 clip and slugged .352, for an OPS of .641, 11.0% lower than the league mark of .719 — 11th of 16 on his team, and 318th of 417 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 84.7 mph off the bat, hit 38.8% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 3.9% of them and made contact on 75.4% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 76 wRC+ puts his offence 24% below average. That comes to -0.1 dbWAR — -5.0 runs with the bat, +0.3 on the bases, -2.6 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+76
wOBA.284
ISO.097
BB%4.0%
WAR-.1

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to -1.4 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

Batting-5.0Baserunning+0.3Position-2.6Replacement+5.9
BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

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 LHP5047110212.234.265.277.24524.0%
vs RHP127118313528.263.298.381.30022.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 129 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 129 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
3.9%
5 barrels
Exit velocity
84.7
mph average
Max exit velo
111.5
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
38.8%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
27.9%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
9.1°
average
Barrel rate3.9%
Exit velocity84.7 mph
Hard hit rate38.8%
Contact rate75.4%

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.

.231.107.2508 AB.42914 AB3 AB.20010 AB.47117 AB.20015 AB.3339 AB.16718 AB.27818 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 Jose Fernandez 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 situations177.255.289.352.284
Bases empty103992222327.222.245.313.246
Runner on first3934100327.294.351.353.320
Runners on746620113413.303.352.409.339
RISP35321011026.313.353.469.359

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
202653177423157740.255.289.352.097.3204.0%22.6%.284-5.076-0.1

Head to head

Put Jose Fernandez beside up to three others.

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Jose Fernandez

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.