What Does Slugging Percentage Mean In Baseball And How Is It Calculated?

The slugging percentage is calculated by dividing the total bases by the at-bat stats of the player.

Every season the MLB players slugging percentage is calculated to see how efficient they are when it comes to hitting for extra bases.

Since a good slugging percentage represents the hitter's quality and his capabilities, it is no doubt that every player would want to have a good percentage at the end of the season.

When calculating the percentage, the total bases include the hit for a single, a double, a triple, and a home run.

The formula to calculate the slugging percentage would be: Total Bases / At Bats

Total bases = Hit for a single + 2* Hit for a second base + 3* Hit for a third base + 4* Hit for a home run

We can see that since it mainly focuses on the hit for extra bases, it adds value to the player's ability to do such compared to hitting for a single.

What Is At Bats?

At bat is simply the hitter's opportunity to hit the ball pitched by the pitcher toward him when he is on home plate. However, at-bats is not equivalent to the hitter's plate appearance.

A hitter is awarded the plate appearance no matter what happens when he's at the plate. If the hitter gets a walk, is hit by a pitch, hits a sacrifice fly, or in case any other irregularities occur while he is on the home plate, it is counted as a plate appearance.

But the player's at-bat is only counted if his time at the plate as a hitter is not marred by any of the above-mentioned irregularities and he gets an opportunity to hit the pitch against the pitcher.

A good slugging percentage in MLB is anything starting from .450. 47 players had a .450 or more slugging percentages in 2022.

Barry Bonds has the best single-season slugging percentage of .863 in 2001, which is generally regarded as the best offensive season by an individual ever in MLB history, with his career slugging percentage ranking eighth all-time with .606.

Many players have their slugging percentage from .400 to .450, which is considered an average slugging percentage.

Some players have slugging percentages below the .400 mark and in the .300 range. Any slugging percentage under the .350 is generally considered weak in the major league.

For a great player, a proper slugging percentage would be .500, and anything above .600 is usually seen as a stat line for an elite player.

The best slugging percentage in their career goes to the legendary Babe Ruth with .690, followed by the great Ted Willimas at .634 and Lou Gherig at .632.

Of the current players, Mike Trout has the highest career slugging percentage with .587, coming in at number 11 all-time. Trout is followed by Aaron Judge with a slugging percentage of .582, coming in at number 13 all-time.

Judge finished the previous 2022 season as the slugging percentage leader with .686, which was definitely boosted by his 62 home run season.