On-base plus slugging#Adjusted OPS (OPS+)

The basic equation is

$OPS\; =\; OBP\; +\; SLG\; \backslash ,$

where OBP is on-base percentage and SLG is slugging average. These averages are defined below as:

$OBP\; =\; \backslash frac\{H+BB+HBP\}\; \{AB+BB+SF+HBP\}$

- the numerator "H + BB + HBP" effectively means "number of trips to first base at least"

- the denominator "AB + BB + SF + HBP" effectively means "total plate appearances", but does not include sacrifice bunts

This is because though a batter makes a trip to the plate he is not given an "AB" when he walks (BB or HBP) or when he hits the ball into play and is called out, but the action allows a run to score (SF). As a result, the 4 counts (AB + BB + SF +HBP) are needed to calculate a batter's total trips to the plate.

and

$SLG\; =\; \backslash frac\{TB\}\; \{AB\}$

where:

• H = hits
• BB = bases on balls
• HBP = times hit by pitch
• AB = at bats
• SF = sacrifice flies
• TB = total bases

In one equation, OPS can be represented as:

$OPS\; =\; \backslash frac\{AB*(H+BB+HBP)+TB*(AB+BB+SF+HBP)\}\{AB*(AB+BB+SF+HBP)\}$

On-base plus slugging was first popularized in 1984 by John Thorn and Pete Palmer's book, The Hidden Game of Baseball.John Thorn and Pete Palmer, The Hidden Game of Baseball, pp. 69-70. The New York Times then began carrying the leaders in this statistic in its weekly "By the Numbers" box, a feature that continued for four years. Baseball journalist Peter Gammons used and evangelized the statistic, and other writers and broadcasters picked it up. The popularity of OPS gradually spread, and by 2004 it began appearing on Topps baseball cards.Alan Schwarz, The Numbers Game, pp. 165, 233.

OPS was formerly sometimes known as production. For instance, production was included in early versions of Thorn's Total Baseball encyclopedia, and in the Strat-O-Matic Computer Baseball game. This term has fallen out of use.

OPS gained popularity because of the availability of its components, OBP and SLG, and that team OPS correlates well with team runs scored.

Bill James, in his essay titled "The 96 Families of Hitters"James, Bill. The 96 Families of Hitters. The Bill James Gold Mine, 2009, p.24. uses seven different categories for classification by OPS:

This effectively transforms OPS into a seven-point ordinal scale. Substituting quality labels such as excellent (A), very good (B), good (C), average (D), fair (E), poor (F) and very poor (G) for the A–G categories creates a subjective reference for OPS values.

{{Further|List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders}}

The top ten Major League Baseball players in lifetime OPS, with at least 3,000 plate appearances {{As of|2024|06|08||df=US|lc=y}}, were:

1. Babe Ruth, 1.1636
2. Ted Williams, 1.1155
3. Lou Gehrig, 1.0798
4. Oscar Charleston, 1.0632
5. Barry Bonds, 1.0512
6. Jimmie Foxx, 1.0376
7. Turkey Stearnes, 1.0340
8. Mule Suttles, 1.0276
9. Hank Greenberg, 1.0169
10. Rogers Hornsby, 1.0103

The top five were all left-handed batters. Jimmie Foxx has the highest career OPS for a right-handed batter.{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/onbase_plus_slugging_career.shtml|title=Career Leaders & Records for OPS|website=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=July 26, 2019}}

The top ten single-season performances in MLB are:

1. Josh Gibson, 1.4744 ({{mlby|1937}})
2. Josh Gibson, 1.4271 ({{mlby|1943}})
3. Barry Bonds, 1.4217 ({{mlby|2004}})
4. Charlie Smith, 1.4214 ({{mlby|1929}})
5. Barry Bonds, 1.3807 ({{mlby|2002}})
6. Babe Ruth, 1.3791 ({{mlby|1920}})
7. Barry Bonds, 1.3785 ({{mlby|2001}})
8. Babe Ruth, 1.3586 ({{mlby|1921}})
9. Mule Suttles, 1.3489 ({{mlby|1926}})
10. Mule Suttles, 1.3247 ({{mlby|1930}})

Gibson holds the highest single-season OPS for a right-hander, while Barry Bonds holds the record for a left-hander. Since 1944, the highest single-season OPS for a right-hander is 1.2224 by Mark McGwire in {{mlby|1998}}, which was 28th all-time.{{cite web |title=Single-Season Records for OPS |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/onbase_plus_slugging_season.shtml |access-date=March 5, 2025 |website=Baseball-Reference.com}}

OPS+, adjusted OPS, is a closely related statistic. OPS+ is OPS adjusted for the park and the league in which the player played. An OPS+ of 100 is defined to be the league average. An OPS+ of 150 or more is excellent and 125 very good, while an OPS+ of 75 or below is poor.

The basic equation for OPS+ is

$OPS+\; =\; 100\; *\; (\backslash frac\{OBP\}\; \{*lgOBP\}\; +\; \backslash frac\{SLG\}\; \{*lgSLG\}\; -\; 1)$

where *lgOBP is the park-adjusted OBP of the league and *lgSLG is the park-adjusted SLG of the league.

A common misconception is that OPS+ closely matches the ratio of a player's OPS to that of their league. In fact, due to the additive nature of the two components in OPS+, a player with an OBP and SLG both 50% better than the league average in those metrics will have an OPS+ of 200 (twice the league average OPS+) while still having an OPS that is only 50% better than the average OPS of the league. It would be a better (although not exact) approximation to say that a player with an OPS+ of 150 produces 50% more runs, in a given set of plate appearances than a player with an OPS+ of 100 (though see clarification above, under "History").

Through the end of the 2024 season, the career top twenty leaders in OPS+ (minimum 3,000 plate appearances) were:{{cite web |title=Career Leaders & Records for Adjusted OPS+ |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/onbase_plus_slugging_plus_career.shtml |access-date=March 5, 2025 |website=Baseball-Reference.com}}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

1. Babe Ruth, 206
2. Ted Williams, 191
3. Oscar Charleston, 184
4. Barry Bonds, 182
5. Lou Gehrig, 179
6. Turkey Stearnes, 177
7. Rogers Hornsby, 175
8. Aaron Judge, 173
8. Mike Trout, 173
10. Mickey Mantle, 172
10. Mule Suttles, 172
12. Dan Brouthers, 171
13. Joe Jackson, 170
14. Ty Cobb, 168
15. Pete Browning, 163
15. Jimmie Foxx, 163
15. Mark McGwire, 163
18. Dave Orr, 162
19. Juan Soto, 160
20. Hank Greenberg, 159
20. Stan Musial, 159

{{div col end}}

The only purely right-handed batters to appear on this list are Hornsby, Judge, Trout, Suttles, Browning, Foxx, McGwire, Orr, and Greenberg. Mantle is the only switch-hitter in the group.

The top ten single-season performances were:{{cite web |title=Single-Season Leaders & Records for Adjusted OPS+ |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/onbase_plus_slugging_plus_season.shtml |access-date=March 5, 2025 |website=Baseball-Reference.com}}

1. Josh Gibson, 281 ({{mlby|1943}})
2. Josh Gibson, 273 ({{mlby|1937}})
3. Barry Bonds, 268 ({{mlby|2002}})
4. Barry Bonds, 263 ({{mlby|2004}})
5. Barry Bonds, 259 ({{mlby|2001}})
6. Fred Dunlap, 256 ({{mlby|1884}}) *
7. Babe Ruth, 255 ({{mlby|1920}})
8. Mule Suttles, 253 ({{mlby|1930}})
9. Oscar Charleston, 251 ({{mlby|1924}})
9. Josh Gibson, 251 ({{mlby|1939}})

* Fred Dunlap's historic 1884 season came in the Union Association, which some baseball experts consider not to be a true major league. If Dunlap's seasons was to be eliminated from the list, Charleston's 1921 season would be on the list.

Despite its simple calculation, OPS is a controversial measurement. OPS weighs on-base percentage and slugging percentage equally. However, on-base percentage correlates better with scoring runs.Lewis, Michael (203). Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game{{page needed|date=June 2019}} Statistics such as wOBA build on this distinction using linear weights. Additionally, the components of OPS are not typically equal (league-average slugging percentages are usually 75–100 points higher than league-average on-base percentages). As a point of reference, the OPS for all of Major League Baseball in 2024 was .711.{{cite web |title=2024 Major League Baseball Standard Batting |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2024-standard-batting.shtml |website=Baseball-Reference.com}}

{{Portal|Baseball}}

• Sabermetrics
• Gross production average

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book|last=Thorn|first=John|author2=Pete Palmer|title=The Hidden Game of Baseball|year=1984|publisher=Doubleday & Company|isbn=0-385-18283-X}}
• {{Cite book|last=Schwarz|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Schwarz|title=The Numbers Game|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312322236|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=Thomas Dunne Books|isbn=0-312-32222-4}}

{{Baseball statistics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:On-Base Plus Slugging}}

Category:Batting statistics