One Key Stat The Rockies, Nationals Need To Improve In 2026

While MLB’s best prepare themselves for the start of postseason play this week, two of the game’s worst teams find themselves at organizational crossroads.

The Nationals are hiring Red Sox assistant general manager Paul Toboni as their new head of baseball operations, completing a front office makeover that illustrates how the team’s now five-year MLB rebuild has not gone as planned.

The Rockies, meanwhile, just finished one of the worst seasons in MLB history. Whatever they decide to this offseason, they will need to change course to turn around an organization that has slipped far behind the rest of the National League.

To illustrate how each team managed to fall so far behind—and see where they may find some low-hanging fruit for speedy improvement—we can look at one very basic stat.

Consider that both the Rockies’ and Nationals’ full-season MiLB hitters walked in 9.5 percent of all plate appearances this year, a number tied for the worst walk rate across all 30 organizations. And it’s not particularly close, either, as no other team was under 10.0 percent. The Braves are 29th at 10.1 percent, the Pirates are at 10.4 percent and the Royals and Red Sox are at 10.5 percent.

It wasn’t that long ago that few teams ever topped a 10 percent walk rate. In 2018, the Mariners were the only organization that cleared that mark. But pitch recognition and zone training is one of the many ways hitting development programs have steadily improved over the past few years. As a result, walk rates have climbed.

In 2021, the average organization walked 10.2 percent of the time in the full-season minors. That number has stayed above 10 percent ever since and reached 11.0 percent this year. Clearly, organizations have worked diligently to coach the proper blend of plate discipline and aggressiveness. Pitches are tracked in cage work to help hitters understand when they are swinging at strikes and when they are chasing pitches out of the strike zone.

The Dodgers have long been considered at the forefront of player development. Los Angeles hitters ranked first in the full-season minors this season with a 12.8 percent walk rate that is the best of the past decade. The Dodgers were second in 2024, top 10 in 2023 and first in 2022. The Brewers, another organization that has clearly made walk rate an emphasis, finished second in 2025 at 12.2 percent to tie the 2023 Mariners and 2023 Twins for second-best over the past decade.

But while this change in approach has swept over offenses around baseball, it has yet to catch on with Rockies and Nationals hitters. Though the league average walk rate has been above 10 percent every year this decade, the Rockies have only topped that mark once (in 2023). The Nationals did walk 10.8 percent of the time in 2023 and 10.1 percent in 2024, but they regressed this year back to 9.5 percent.

So, why does it matter? It’s only one minor league stat, after all, and both the Rockies and Nationals have plenty of problems. The issue is that the approach has manifested at the major league level, as well.

In 2025, the Rockies finished with the lowest walk rate in the majors (6.7 percent), while the Nationals were third-worst (7.4 percent). Not coincidentally, the Rockies had the worst on-base percentage in the minors this year (.293) and finished second-worst in MLB in runs scored despite playing home games at Coors Field.

Joining the Rockies in the bottom third of walk percentage at the major league level in each of the past four seasons are the Marlins. Even so, in Miami we find an example of how a change in approach can lead to positive changes.

From 2021-2024, the Marlins ranked bottom five in MLB walk rate every season, including a last-place 6.7 percent rate last year. The same was true in the minors. From 2018-2024, the Marlins’ full-season MiLB walk rate never climbed above 10 percent. In 2024, the Marlins were second-worst at 9.6 percent, ahead of only—you guessed it—the Rockies.

But under new GM Peter Bendix, the Marlins have made significant strides. Miami’s major league walk rate improved from an MLB-worst 6.7 percent to 7.9 percent this year, finishing 24th overall. With a better approach at the plate, the Marlins went from scoring 3.93 runs per game in 2024 (27th best) to 4.43 in 2025 (16th best).

In the minor leagues, the Marlins went from 29th in walk rate in 2024 (9.6 percent) to 10th at 11.3 percent. Their runs per game jumped from 4.23 in 2024 to 4.40 in 2025.

The Cardinals are also reworking their player development under Chaim Bloom. While St. Louis’ walk rate at the MiLB level has generally been better than the Rockies or Nationals, it was still fourth-worst in the minors in 2024 at 9.9 percent. This year, the Cardinals improved to 13th at 11.2 percent.

This isn’t to suggest that if an organization’s hitters simply start walking more all their problems will be solved. But in the Nationals and Rockies—whose 15.1 and 13.8 percent K-BB rates for hitters this season ranked worst and fifth-worst, respectively—we see two struggling organizations whose hitters could benefit the most from learning which pitches to take.

Below, you’ll find sortable full-season minor league data all 30 organizations in a wide variety of hitting and pitching statistics.

2025 MiLB Team Batting Statistics

2025 MiLB Team Pitching Statistics

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