Austin Nola

Austin Nola

33-Year-Old CatcherC
San Diego Padres
2023 Fantasy Outlook
Nola is known more for his bat than his glove, but he struggled in both areas in 2022 with a .650 OPS and minus-six DRS. He played in 110 games and had a solid 8.9 percent walk rate, but he hit only four home runs and had a .290 wOBA. A .251 average was also about 20 points lower than his career mark, which is troubling since his. 284 BABIP wasn't a significant drop. Nola should open 2023 in at least a part-time role, but prospect Luis Campusano will be in the mix to start Opening Day and could be a lineup regular with a strong start to the campaign. Read Past Outlooks
RANKSFrom Preseason
#478
ADP
$Signed a one-year, $2.35 million contract with the Padres in January of 2023.
Back on bench
CSan Diego Padres
May 27, 2023
Nola will be on the bench for Saturday's game against the Yankees, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com reports.
ANALYSIS
Nola's playing time has slipped recently, particularly against right-handers. He remains the primary catcher against lefties, but it's been Brett Sullivan behind the plate against four of the last five righties, including Saturday's starter Luis Severino. Nola is hitting .135/.259/.188 on the year, so he's not making much of a case to expand his role.
Read More News
Batting Stats
Loading Batting Stats...
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2023 MLB Game Log
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Loading Batting Game Log...
2022 MLB Game Log
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Loading Batting Game Log...
2021 MLB Game Log
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Loading Batting Game Log...
2020 MLB Game Log
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Loading Batting Game Log...
2019 MLB Game Log
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Scoring
FanDuel
DraftKings
Yahoo DFS
Loading Batting Game Log...
Minor League Game Log
Calculate Stats Over Time
Just click on any two dates.
Loading Minor League Batting Game Log...
Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
4
4
11
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
1
5
7
3
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2021
 
 
+23%
OPS vs LHP
2023
 
 
+4%
OPS vs LHP
2022
 
 
+22%
OPS vs LHP
2021
 
 
+27%
OPS vs LHP
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2021vs Left .711 259 28 3 30 2 .281 .332 .379
Since 2021vs Right .578 454 34 4 46 0 .208 .300 .278
2023vs Left .419 40 2 0 1 0 .139 .225 .194
2023vs Right .402 82 5 1 6 0 .118 .241 .162
2022vs Left .733 144 16 3 17 2 .285 .333 .400
2022vs Right .599 253 24 1 23 0 .230 .313 .286
2021vs Left .821 75 10 0 12 0 .348 .387 .435
2021vs Right .647 119 5 2 17 0 .221 .311 .337
More Splits View More Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2021
 
 
+34%
OPS at Home
2023
 
 
+249%
OPS at Home
2022
 
 
+9%
OPS at Home
2021
 
 
+43%
OPS at Home
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2021Home .722 350 31 4 47 2 .271 .364 .358
Since 2021Away .540 364 31 3 29 0 .203 .263 .277
2023Home .656 61 4 1 4 0 .204 .350 .306
2023Away .188 62 3 0 3 0 .055 .133 .055
2022Home .679 192 20 1 21 2 .271 .354 .325
2022Away .621 205 20 3 19 0 .232 .289 .331
2021Home .844 97 7 2 22 0 .310 .392 .452
2021Away .592 97 8 0 7 0 .236 .289 .303
More Splits View More Split Stats
Stat Review
How does Austin Nola compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
0.50
 
BB Rate
12.2%
 
K Rate
24.4%
 
BABIP
.164
 
ISO
.048
 
AVG
.125
 
OBP
.242
 
SLG
.173
 
OPS
.415
 
wOBA
.205
 
Exit Velocity
84.9 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
24.7%
 
Barrels/PA
0.8%
 
Expected BA
.174
 
Expected SLG
.228
 
Sprint Speed
23.7 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
41.7%
 
Line Drive %
13.9%
 
Fly Ball %
44.4%
 
Advanced Batting Stats
Loading Advanced Batting Stats...
Additional Stats
Games By Position
Defensive Stats
Loading Games Played by Position...
Loading MLB Defensive Stats...
Batted Ball Stats
Loading Batted Ball Stats...
Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
Want more matchup stats?
Loading Matchup Stats...
Our full team depth charts are reserved for RotoWire subscribers.
Subscribe Now
Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Austin Nola See More
Lineup Lowdown: National League
4 days ago
Ryan Boyer steps in with his deep dive into the National League's Lineup Lowdown, including a look at Mookie Betts trending toward eligibility at three positions.
NL FAAB Factor: Waiver Pickups of the Week
27 days ago
In this week's edition, Jan Levine profiles a couple NL pitchers who are in line for more playing time.
MLB Barometer: The Best and Worst of April
32 days ago
This week, Erik Halterman ranks his biggest risers and fallers according to our earned auction values page, with Arizona starting pitcher Zac Gallen leading off.
Todd's Takes: Boomer and Lucky Lefties
51 days ago
Todd Zola discusses slides and platoon splits before sharing his observations from Wednesday's box scores, which included another game-winning homer from Nolan Gorman.
NL FAAB Factor: Waiver Pickups of the Week
69 days ago
Jan Levine kicks off the column for 2023 and examines all the NL positional battles.
Past Fantasy Outlooks
2022
2021
2020
After years of pushing defensively minded players behind the plate, the Padres finally acquired a catcher who could hit and were excited to see what Nola could do over a full season of play in 2021. It was not meant to be as Nola played in just 56 games around a knee sprain which cost him a good chunk of the summer as well as a thumb injury later in the season which eventually sent him to the surgeon for repair. Those circumstances help explain the sizable drop in his power indicators while his ability to hit for average was still on display. Assuming he is healthy, he should have the majority of the catching duties while Victor Caratini caddies Yu Darvish and Jorge Alfaro spot catches when not needed as an outfield reserve. Nola is more of a gap power hitter, but his ability to hit for average is matched by few catchers.
Nola began last season with eligibility only at first base, but it wasn't long before he qualified at catcher, having taken over as Seattle's chief backstop with Tom Murphy sidelined. At the trade deadline, Nola was slashing .307/.377/.525, prompting a deal to the Padres. Nola slipped to .217/.314/.383 the final month but provided value with his glove. Despite the second-half swoon, Nola finished with a lower K% and higher BB% than his freshman campaign. He only has a career 451 MLB PA, but when analyzed in tandem with his minor-league history, Nola projects to offer a nice BA floor at a spot where most inflict harm. He also sports a HR/FB rate a tick above average with ample flyballs to contribute pop from behind the plate. San Diego has a crowded roster, but Nola's versatility should lead to ample volume, supporting a top-10 ranking at the position.
After spending parts of five seasons at Triple-A, Nola finally reached the major leagues at age 29. He even became a popular fantasy add, though he was appealing in large part because he was catcher-eligible, and unfortunately, he has lost that eligibility in most leagues heading into 2020 (seven appearances at catcher). As a 1B-only player in 20-game formats, with 2B-eligibility in leagues with a 15-game minimum, Nola is in the glut of fringe-useful position players. He was better than average in his 79 games with the Mariners, but it seems we can safely attribute a large portion of his 2019 success to the juiced ball, as Nola had never slugged even .400 at any stop prior to last year. The plate skills are strong enough for Nola to stick around in a super-utility role, but it's not a role that projects to be conducive to mixed-league relevance unless he were to regain C-eligibility in-season.
More Fantasy News
On bench again Thursday
CSan Diego Padres
May 25, 2023
Nola is out of the lineup again Thursday against the Nationals.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
Takes seat Wednesday
CSan Diego Padres
May 24, 2023
Nola is not in the starting lineup for Wednesday's game against the Nationals, Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
Gets Sunday off
CSan Diego Padres
May 21, 2023
Nola is not in the starting lineup against the Red Sox on Sunday.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
Gets Sunday off
CSan Diego Padres
May 14, 2023
Nola is out of the lineup for Sunday's game against the Dodgers.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.
On bench Friday
CSan Diego Padres
May 12, 2023
Nola is out of the starting lineup Friday against the Dodgers.
ANALYSIS
Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news.