SURPRISE, ARIZONA — Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker praised utility player Tyler Wade's ability to come off the bench during spring training in Surprise, Arizona, describing him as an ideal pinch hitter at a time when the role's usage patterns and performance metrics are shifting across Major League Baseball.

"He is the perfect role player, in my opinion, because he can do so many things," Schumaker said. "Coming off the bench is real. There's a lot of guys that can't produce off the bench because they don't have these short, compact swings. And when you have these long swings, it's really challenging to produce in a pinch-hit type of role."

Pinch-hitting frequency has fluctuated in recent years. There were 5,879 pinch-hit plate appearances across MLB in 2021. That figure dropped to 3,230 in 2022, the year the National League adopted the universal designated hitter rule. Teams used an average of 0.66 pinch hitters per team per game that year. By 2025, American League teams averaged 0.85 pinch hitters per game, the highest AL figure in 23 years — up from 0.41 per game in 2011.

Performance in the role has generally lagged behind regular at-bats. Pinch hitters posted a collective OPS of .659 in 2023, .641 in 2024, and .635 in 2025, which ranked 39th among the past 53 seasons. In the early part of the 2026 season, that figure fell to .544. Over the past three seasons, hitters carried a composite .645 OPS in pinch-hitting appearances compared with a .723 OPS in non-pinch-hitting appearances. That ratio — pinch-hitting performance equal to just under 90 percent of non-pinch-hitting performance — was the highest since 2003.

The league-level leverage index for pinch hitters was 1.42 in 2025, the lowest since 2017 and the second lowest since 1974, according to FanGraphs. In the early part of the 2026 season, the average leverage index for pinch hitters was 1.38, matching the record low, according to FanGraphs. The highest recorded league-level leverage index for pinch hitters since 1974 was 1.86, reached in 1974, 1975, and 1979.

The decline in leverage marks a departure from an era when some teams employed hitters whose primary role was pinch hitting. In 1978, the Los Angeles Dodgers rostered pinch-hitting specialists Manny Mota and Vic Davalillo. In 1977, Mota posted a batting line of .389/.522/.500 in 48 pinch-hit plate appearances with an average leverage index of 2.28, the highest of any National League batter with at least 10 plate appearances that year. He appeared in one game defensively that season, had 50 plate appearances, and ranked 55th among 408 NL hitters in win probability added. Over his career, Mota had a .304 batting average and hit .299 in 499 pinch-hit plate appearances. Other players known for their pinch-hitting roles included Charlie Keller, Rusty Staub, Terry Crowley, and Gates Brown.