I both love and hate AI. But not for the reasons that most do. Many hate AI for what it may become at some point, which is a Skynet entity that will want to destroy humankind. Hey, at least myself and future generations won’t be plopped to the couch watching TV and worrying about paying off mortgages, student loans, and credit cards. Naw, we’ll be out there getting excercise, touching dirt, with only one source of motivation: evading death. How liberating and exhilirating! Many love AI for the assistance in making many aspects of life easier: coding, school, and cutting out the middle and lower men/women. Me? I’m all about the videos. Give me dancing gorillas and women in high heels crossing over and dunking on fools. I just wanna laugh! And that’s what I’ve mostly been doing when Javier Sanoja has entered my consciousness. First off, he’s 5’7″ and 150 pounds. Yes, I’m a horrible, horrible heightist. But jokes on me because he’s making $791,500 this year while I’m making $.000000791500 for this post. Over the last nine games, Sanoja is slashing .429/.459/.686 with a .257 ISO! I also just checked my Perts team, and I picked him up on August 31. I had no idea because I’m a streaming fool. But Sanojahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahaaha.
Let’s dig in.
Javier Sanoja signed with the Miami Marlins as an international free agent in 2019. He’s 24 years old and bats from the right side.
Throughout his minor league career, the walk rate was in the 7% area while the strikeout rate was often in the same range, hitting double-digits only once. The power was limited, though, as the ISO never exceeded .200 and was often sub-.100. He did steal double-digit bases four times, with two of those over 30 bases.
Sanoja made his MLB debut in 2024 but only racked up 36 plate appearances. In 2025, Sanoja received 342 plate appearances and delivered six home runs, 40 runs, 38 RBI and six stolen bases. The walk rate was 5.6%, strikeout rate was 12%, ISO was .153, and the slash was .243/.287/.396.
So far this season, Sanoja is slashing .292/.332/.442 with a 5.8% walk rate, 7.9% strikeout rate, and .151 ISO. Through 417 plate appearances, he’s contributed eight home runs, 41 runs, 56 RBI and nine stolen bases.
For much of the season, he was in a utility role, playing 105 games at third base, 15 games at second base, 27 games in the outfield and 10 games at shortstop. He’s even pitched 4.2 innings! But on June 25th, Sanoja became an everyday player as Christopher Morel was designated for assignment while Connor Norby was optioned to Triple-A.
Since then, Sanoja is slashing .326/.364/.509 with a 5.6% walk rate, 6.1% strikeout rate, and .183 ISO. The BABIP is slightly elevated at .328. The Statcast numbers aren’t great, as the average exit velocity is only 86.9 mph with a 2.9% barrel rate and 32.4% hard hit rate. The pull rate is only 36.8% while the launch angle is 12.3 degrees. Despite that, he’s hit six home runs with 27 runs, 32 RBI, and six stolen bases.
In the current heater of nine games in which he’s notched a hit in every game, the slash is .429/.459/.686 with a 5.4% walk rate, 5.4% strikeout rate and .247 ISO. The BABIP is .419, so the heater is obviously unsustainable, but the average exit velocity is 88 mph while the pull rate is 48.5%. That said, the launch angle is only 3.3 degrees, barrel rate is 3%, while the ground ball rate is 48.5%.
Looking at the plate discipline numbers, the 93.5% contact rate in the zone does not surprise, while the swinging strike rate is only 5.5%. But the chase rate is 38.2% while the contact rate outside the zone is 82.8%.
I’m skeptical of the power for Sanoja. He’s small in stature and isn’t a lift/pull monster. In addition, the bat speed is only 69.2 mph while the barrel rate is minuscule. He also chases a little too much outside the zone for me, rather than waiting for his pitch to drive. But I don’t think that’s his mentality anyway.
I love the positional eligibility for Javier Sanoja and the fact that he doesn’t strike out often. He can steal bases, and the 28.6 ft/sec sprint speed is in the 82nd percentile. He doesn’t hit atop the order, though, and there will likely be regression in both the power and batting average. I will hold him on my Perts team for the time being to ride the wave, but I won’t hesitate to drop him if he cools off or another option presents itself.
