The most frustrating play in baseball has a leaderboard. Here are the hitters topping it in 2026 — and what it costs them in Bases Gained.
The Direct Answer
A double play is frustrating because it instantly converts a base-runner opportunity into two outs while leaving the bases empty. It erases positive run expectancy in a single pitch, kills offensive momentum, and punishes hard contact on the ground — making it feel like doing everything right still produces nothing. In Bases Gained terms, each GIDP costs a hitter an estimated 2+ units of offensive value. Two outs. One pitch. The inning ends before it starts.
2026 Season Snapshot
The Leaderboard
These five hitters lead MLB in grounded into double plays through May 29, 2026. Data from Baseball Reference 2026 standard batting. Asterisk denotes left-handed hitter.
| # | Player | Team | Age | PA | HR | OBP | SLG | WAR | GIDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan O'Hearn* | PIT | 32 | 182 | 7 | .368 | .459 | 0.6 | 10 |
| 1 | Francisco Alvarez | NYM | 24 | 128 | 4 | .317 | .393 | 0.0 | 10 |
| 3 | Junior Caminero | TBR | 22 | 232 | 13 | .353 | .480 | 0.7 | 9 |
| 4 | Jeremiah Jackson | BAL | 26 | 171 | 6 | .263 | .400 | 0.7 | 9 |
| 5 | Josh Jung | TEX | 28 | 211 | 6 | .365 | .474 | 1.3 | 8 |
What the Table Tells You
Junior Caminero's 9 GIDP at 22 years old are worth watching. He is making contact at a rate that creates double play opportunities — a byproduct of his aggressive, pull-heavy approach. The question for Tampa Bay is whether the 13 home runs that come with that profile are worth the rally-killing that tags along.
Josh Jung's presence on this list is the most interesting item for Rangers fans. He is the only player in the top five posting a WAR above 1.0 — meaning his production elsewhere is overcoming the double play damage. For now.
"Francisco Alvarez is grounding into a double play once every 12.8 plate appearances. That is a rally being killed before it breathes."
Jeremiah Jackson's 3 walks in 171 plate appearances tell the real story behind his 9 GIDP. He is walking roughly once every 57 PA. That is not a double play problem. That is a plate approach problem that shows up as double plays.
The Framework
Standard box scores count GIDP. They do not tell you what it costs. The Bases Gained framework charges each double play an estimated 2-unit penalty — the direct opportunity cost per occurrence, before RE24 damage is applied on top.
| # | Player | Team | PA | GIDP | BG Penalty | Total Bases | BB | BG (Est.) | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan O'Hearn* | PIT | 182 | 10 | −20 | 73 | 19 | 75 | 0.6 |
| 1 | Francisco Alvarez | NYM | 128 | 10 | −20 | 44 | 11 | 37 | 0.0 |
| 3 | Junior Caminero | TBR | 232 | 9 | −18 | 97 | 29 | 106 | 0.7 |
| 4 | Jeremiah Jackson | BAL | 171 | 9 | −18 | 66 | 3 | 52 | 0.7 |
| 5 | Josh Jung | TEX | 211 | 8 | −16 | 91 | 16 | 93 | 1.3 |
What the Bases Gained Lens Adds
Both are near the top of the GIDP list. But Caminero has an estimated Bases Gained of 106 against Alvarez's 37 — because Caminero has 97 total bases and a patient-enough approach to generate 29 walks. His GIDP count is a problem. His broader offensive profile absorbs it.
Alvarez is the one that should concern the Mets most. Thirty-seven estimated Bases Gained in 128 plate appearances — a rate of 0.29 per PA — is well below where the Mets need their catcher to be in the middle of the order. The 10 GIDP are not just a quirky leaderboard entry. They are erasing production he has not built up enough elsewhere to survive.
GIDP is not a standalone component of the Bases Gained formula — but it punishes a hitter across two separate channels. First, it eliminates a plate appearance that could have added total bases, walks, or RBI. Second, the RE24 component captures the run expectancy collapse when a double play converts a runner-on, one-out situation into bases empty, three outs. Both channels hit the ledger. The 2-unit penalty in the table above is conservative.
The Bigger Picture
A strikeout costs one out. A GIDP costs two — and the psychological weight is heavier than the math. Hard contact that goes for nothing. A runner erased. A pitcher who walked away from a jam he should not have survived. The inning ending not with a soft tapper but with what looked, for a fraction of a second, like it might leave the park.
That is the frustration. The ball was hit well enough. The fielder was positioned correctly, the footwork was clean, and the runner was not fast enough to break it up. Baseball does not issue moral victories for hard contact on the ground.
The Bases Gained framework captures this precisely because it is a counting stat. A great at-bat three innings ago does not cancel what just happened. Each GIDP chips away at the ledger. Ten of them, as O'Hearn and Alvarez have accumulated, is a hole in the production line that the rest of the profile has to dig out of. Alvarez, through 128 plate appearances, has not dug out of it.
"The Bases Gained framework is merciless to hitters who kill rallies. Each GIDP chips away at the ledger. Ten of them is a hole the rest of the profile has to dig out of."
Full 2026 Bases Gained leaderboards, including positional adjustments and complete RE24 integration for every qualified hitter, are available exclusively inside the Baseball Nerd Analytics Suite.
The full Bases Gained leaderboard covering 2024, 2025, and 2026 with component breakdowns for every qualified hitter is available to paid subscribers of The Baseball Nerd on Substack.
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