Nathan Lukes of the Toronto Blue Jays is facing criticism for his poor start, hitting only 2-for-26 with a .077 batting average. Fans are expressing their concerns on social media, reflecting the anxiety that often accompanies early-season performance slumps in baseball.
Blue Jays' Nathan Lukes is victim of classic early-season baseball worry originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It doesn't take long looking through Toronto Blue Jays fans on social media to find those upset with Nathan Lukes.
It's not Lukes' fault that baseball is so prone to small sample size worries, though.
And at the moment, that appears to be what's happening. Lukes is 2-for-26 this season. That's an .077 batting average.
When a slump like that happens right away, there's no avoiding it. It's not like you built up a cushion with a .300 average that then drops to .250.
Starting from Opening Day, a slump means an ugly average stares back at you each and every day until you start to turn things around.
It doesn't mean that there won't be a turnaround, though.
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Lukes was a key piece to the American League champions in 2025. He hit .255 with a .730 OPS.
In a 22-game sample at the MLB level in 2024, he hit .303 with an .818 OPS.
In Lukes' minor league career, he has a .769 OPS across more than 700 games.
There's no reason to think that Lukes has all of a sudden turned into the worst hitter in baseball.
This is just bad timing, and getting used to a slightly different role with Jesus Sanchez now on the roster, and some bad luck compounding with a slump.
With an average at .077, there's almost nowhere for it to go but up. And whether fans want to believe it or not, Lukes is almost certainly going to heat up at some point sooner rather than later.
Nathan Lukes has a batting average of .077 this season, with only 2 hits in 26 at-bats.
Fans are worried due to his significant early-season slump, which has led to a low batting average and heightened anxiety typical in baseball regarding small sample sizes.
A poor start can create pressure on a player, as they lack the cushion of a higher average to fall back on, making it harder to recover throughout the season.
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