On-base Plus Slugging (OPS) is exactly what it sounds like: the sum of a player’s on-base percentage and their slugging percentage. Many saberists don’t like OPS because it treats OBP as equal in value with SLG%, while OBP has been proven to be roughly twice as important as SLG% in scoring runs (x1.8 to be exact). However, OPS has value as a metric because it is the only widely accepted statistic that accounts for all the different aspects of offense: contact, patience, and and power. You can find OPS on baseball cards and in broadcasts, and it’s a simple statistic for regular baseball fans to understand.
On-base Plus Slugging Plus (OPS+) has not gained as much widespread acceptance, but is a more informative metric than OPS. This statistic normalizes a player’s OPS — it adjusts for small variables that might affect OPS scores (e.g. park effects) and puts the statistic on an easy-to-understand scale. A 100 OPS+ is league average, and each point up or down is one percentage point above or below league average. In other words, if a player had a 90 OPS+ last season, that means their OPS was 10% below league average.
Since OPS+ adjusts for league and park effects, it’s possible to use OPS+ to compare players from different years and on different teams.
Context:
Please note that the following chart is meant as an estimate, and that league-average OPS varies on a year-by-year basis. To see the league-average OPS for every year from 1901 to the present, check the FanGraphs leaderboards.
League-average OPS+ is always 100.
| Rating | OPS |
|---|---|
| Excellent | 1.000 |
| Great | 0.900 |
| Above Average | 0.800 |
| Average | 0.730 |
| Below Average | 0.700 |
| Poor | 0.600 |
| Awful | 0.550 |
Things to Remember:
● If you’re looking to evaluate a player’s offense, OPS is a better metric to use than batting average, but should always be used in conjunction with other statistics as well. It’s a good gateway statistic to get people thinking beyond the traditional statistics.
● If you have the choice, use Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) instead of OPS. OPS weighs both OBP and SLG% the same, while wOBA accounts for the fact that OBP is actually more valuable.
● Since it provides context and adjusts for park and league effects, OPS+ is better to use than straight OPS, especially if you’re comparing statistics between seasons.
Links for Further Reading:
Visually Comparing OPS and wOBA – FanGraphs
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