Top 10 Baseball Athletes – February 2019

Major League Baseball Players with the Most Engaged Fans

MLB fans are getting more anxious as Opening Day comes closer and closer. This is apparent from the fans’ interactions with many baseball players on various social media platforms. Yasiel Puig, Joc Pederson and Justin Turner had the most social interactions from fans out of any other active baseball players during the month of February. Another notable jump in the rankings is Jake Arrieta of the Philadelphia Phillies, who vaulted 70 places to number 9 this month. Hookit analyzed how many interactions the top players received from all forms of social media channels and the reasons for the big jumps or decreases in positions.

Key Insights

Yasiel Puig, Cincinnati Reds Right Fielder, Snatches First Position

Yasiel Puig was traded from the Los Angeles Dodgers in late December to the Cincinnati Reds. Puig is active on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, where he collectively has nearly 2.2M followers between the three platforms, with Instagram being the biggest following platform at 481.4K followers. Between his 40 social media posts among his platforms, he managed to gather 513.3K interactions from his followers to propel him to the first place position, up 3 spots from the previous month. One thing to keep an eye on is his net followers actually decreased 8.1K during February.
His high interaction rate is a result of the content he posts. He has been known to have an outlandish personality, which includes licking his bat before going up to plate and kissing his previous hitting coach from the Dodgers. His social media posts include many of the same and fans love commenting on and sharing his content.

Third Baseman, Kris Bryant, is Stagnant at Fifth Position

Kris Bryant boasts an impressive 1.9M social media following. During the month of February, Bryant only posted to social media a total of 3 times, twice on Instagram and once on Facebook. Despite losing 4.4K followers in February and the low number of posts, he remained in the fifth position among active baseball players with 173.2K interactions from fans. One post on Instagram about baseball being back gathered 95.1K likes and 665 comments.

Chicago Cubs Pitcher, Yu Darvish, Drops to Eighth

Yu Darvish dropped from the first position in January down to the eighth position the following month. Darvish experienced a shorter 2018 season due to problems in his elbow and ultimately resulting in surgery. However, he is back with more confidence than ever and ready to make an impact for the Cubs again.

In January, the reason for the high interactions on his posts was due to him documenting his rehab and fans becoming excited for his comeback. However, in February, he rarely posted about his comeback, but rather many pictures of home cooked meals. Darvish, who has a 2.2M social media following, posted 94 times for a total of 126.1K interactions, mainly on Twitter. Being from Japan, many of Darvish’s posts on his social media accounts are in Japanese, though part of his 2019 comeback season includes speaking more English in interviews. With Darvish beginning to speak more English, fans in the U.S. can expect to see more content in English, leading to more interactions.

The Wrap Up

Among the top 10 active baseball players ranked according to social interactions, there was a total of 2.1M different interactions from fans and followers. This engagement with fans can be instrumental for brands that sponsor those top athletes and increasing their brand awareness and driving value. Analyzing the top ranked baseball players and what drives their interactions to be so high can create valuable insights for any brand looking for new partnerships.

Note: All data is from official Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram Business accounts. Any personal Instagram account data is not included in these rankings.

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