Yeah, I wish there were more official stats that could reveal if players are clutch. In addition to game winning RBIs, you often hear about batting average with runners in scoring position (RISP).
I came across
an article on CBS sports that says batting average with RISP may not be the best clutch metric. Instead, it may be more telling to look at batting average in "late and close" games or "high threshold".
According to
this article a "late and close" situation is defined by Baseball Reference as any plate appearance from the seventh inning on in which the batting team is either in a tie game, ahead by one run or has the potential tying run on deck.
"High leverage" situations are determined by the leverage index, which
according to baseball reference is: "Within a game, there are plays that are more pivotal than others. We attempt to quantify these plays with a stat called leverage index (LI). LI looks at the possible changes in win probability in a given situation; situations where dramatic swings in win probability are possible (e.g. runner on second late in a tie game) have higher LIs than situations where there can be no large change in win probability (e.g. late innings of a 12-run blowout).
The stat is normalized so that on average the leverage is 1.00. In tense situations, the leverage is higher than 1.00 (up to about 10) and in low-tension situations, the leverage is between 0 and 1.0."
Supposedly, these metrics usually show that players rarely perform significantly better in clutch situations over the course of a career, but it seems like players should get credit for it when they do. I know one of the reasons Pete Alonso has so many RBIs this year is because he has a high batting average with runners in scoring position. But I can't find whether or not he is performing well in "late and close" or "high threshold" situations.
It has always bothered me that WAR doesn't take into account any form of clutch hitting. If we are trying to measure how much a player helps his team win, then doesn't clutch hitting matter?