Do the Athletics Have a Breakout Star in Lawrence Butler?
After a disappointing start to his season, Butler has been on an unbelievable hot streak, looking like one of the best hitters in baseball in the second half.
The 2024 Oakland Athletics have outperformed projections. Though they won’t come close to making the playoffs, the A’s have a good chance to finish higher than last place in the AL West for the first time since 2021. That year, they narrowly missed the playoffs and finished with a 53.1% win rate.
In 2024, they’ve won games 43.1% of the time. This is a vast improvement to their 30.2% winning percentage from last season.
The A’s have simply been a more enjoyable offense to watch on a daily basis. In 2023, they had only two hitters post an above-average wRC+: Ryan Noda and Brent Rooker. In 2024, they’ve had four. Over the course of a full season, that can play a huge role in a team’s total offensive production.
The four hitters with a minimum of 350 plate appearances with a wRC+ above 100 this season are Rooker, JJ Bleday, Shea Langeliers, and perhaps the most exciting player of the group, Lawrence Butler.
Butler is the youngest player in this crop of Athletics hitters. At just 24 years old, he trails only Brent Rooker for the highest wRC+ on the team.
Lawrence Butler: A Budding Star
Lawrence Butler broke camp with the Athletics on Opening Day this season. After a decent stint in Double-A in 2023, the A’s promoted Butler to Triple-A to close the season. After just 22 games there, he was promoted to the big leagues in mid-August.
Butler struggled to adjust to major league pitching and posted a 59 wRC+ in a 42-game sample. His on-base skills in the show proved to be anything but ready, as the young outfielder walked at a mere 3.1% clip.
Still, Butler came into spring training in 2024 with nothing but the intention to make the big league lineup. He did just that after an impressive 21-game run that saw him slash .364/.419/.509, good for a 149 wRC+.
Early Season Woes
After breaking camp with the A’s, Butler went on a less-than-ideal streak of about 120 plate appearances. The 24-year-old struggled once again in the majors and was sent down to Triple-A after posting a 67 wRC+ and a near-30% strikeout rate over the first couple of months of the 2024 season.
He improved his overall production in his 27 games in Triple-A. However, his performance didn’t exactly overwhelm anyone. He slashed .255/.349/.418, hitting four homers and swiping seven bags in the process.
After getting his wRC+ figure back up to a respectable enough 94, he was promoted to the big league club once again. A huge factor that got him back into the Oakland A’s lineup was his improved plate discipline and on-base skills. Butler struck out 19.8% of the time while drawing walks at a 12.7% rate during his stint at Triple-A.
After returning to the big league club on June 18th, Butler has been unstoppable.
The Breakout
Since his return to MLB, Butler has been one of the best hitters in baseball. Simply put, he’s been on a ridiculous hot streak and shows no signs of slowing down. In his last 265 plate appearances, Butler is slashing .309/.343/.630.
That slash line has led to a mind-blowing 172 wRC+. That figure ranks seventh in all of baseball since June 18th.
To make this feat all the more impressive, he’s the youngest player on the top 10 list in wRC+ since that date. He sits squarely in the middle between superstars Juan Soto (175) and Shohei Ohtani (166).
Excellent Full-Season Numbers
With his excellent performance as of late, Butler has all but erased his slow start from the record.
Among MLB players in their age-23 season or younger, Butler has been the second-best hitter (min. 300 PA) by wRC+. The lone player who ranks ahead of him? 2023 American League Rookie of the Year, Gunnar Henderson.
Due to a lack of playing time earlier in the year and a poor start to the season, Butler won’t be winning AL Rookie of the Year in 2024.
However, Butler willed his way onto my list of the top 10 budding stars who had under one year of service time entering the 2024 season. On that list, which I wrote earlier this year, I ranked Butler fifth. If I were to write that piece today, he would undoubtedly be higher.
Lawrence Butler 2024 Hitter Card
Butler boasts an intriguing power/speed combination. If he were to have played a full season’s worth of games, there’s not a doubt in my mind that this lefty would’ve cleared the 20/20 mark.
There’s still time for Butler to accomplish this feat. Despite not having the best raw sprint speed, he is 14-for-14 on stolen base attempts in 2024.
Whether or not he reaches that mark isn’t entirely important to me. Lawrence Butler’s primary value comes from his bat. He’s been one of the most well-rounded hitters this season when it comes to batted ball data.
He ranks in the 87th percentile in average exit velocity, 86th percentile in barrel rate, and 91st percentile in hard-hit rate. He’s doing all of this while striking out far less often than others with similar batted ball data.
Players with similarly impressive quality of contact ratings but inflated K-rates include Cal Raleigh, Paul Goldschmidt, and fellow rookie lefty, Wilyer Abreu.
Butler’s rapid ascent to maturity has been a wildly impressive thing to watch in 2024. Proof of his improvement is easy to see when you take a look at his platoon splits from 2023 in comparison to 2024.
In 2023, Butler was unusable against same-handed pitchers. He posted a wretched 18 wRC+ against southpaws. Fast forward to 2024 and Butler has flipped the narrative that he can’t hit lefties on its head. He’s posted a 152 wRC+ against lefties while maintaining a 136 wRC+ against righties.
Lawrence Butler is an exciting young stud in today’s game. It’s a difficult time for A’s fans. Decisions ownership has made have led to riots from fans, the team has been one of the worst in baseball over the past several seasons, and it’s difficult to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Butler should be a sign of hope for Oakland fans.
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