Wyatt Langford's Short Swing Generates Big Bat Speed

Image credit: Wyatt Langford (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)

If you want to feel good about Rangers outfielder Wyatt Langford’s chances to be a special hitter, here’s yet another reason to feel optimistic: when it comes to generating exceptional bat speed and power from a very short swing, he stands out.

Langford’s stats in the majors so far may seem disappointing. He’s hitting .224/.295/.293. He has just five extra-base hits and only one home run in 31 games.

But with the release of Baseball Savant’s new bat-tracking data, we have yet another data point of how Langford’s hitting has a chance to be elite.

When it comes to generating exceptional bat speed from a short swing, Langford stands atop all MLB hitters.

Langford’s 6.8-foot swing length is the 19th shortest among the 221 players tracked. That’s helpful for contact ability.

And as you might expect, most of the hitters with the shortest swing lengths are pure contact hiters. Luis Arraez has the majors shortest swing at 5.9 feet. He also has the slowest bat speed in the majors. Arraez is not trying to hit the ball out of the park, he’s focused almost entirely on making contact.

Most of the hitters in this realm are pure contact hitters with modest power, and very few of them have even average bat speeds. Among the 50 shortest swings, only Langford, Colton Cowser, Bobby Witt Jr. and Elias Diaz have a bat speed of 73.0 mph or higher (Langford’s is 74.0).

That 74.0 mph bat speed for Langford is 44th best among the 221 qualifiers.

Since we have bat speed to point of contact and swing length to point of contact, we can look at how quickly a hitter can accelerate their bat to their average bat speed at contact. To keep this simpler, we’ve converted miles per hour to feet per second, since the swing length is also in feet.

Rank	Name	Avg Bat Speed (fps)	Swing Length (ft)	Estimated Acceleration (fps/ft)
1	Wyatt Langford	108.49	6.69	16.21
2	Bobby Witt Jr.	110.28	6.95	15.87
3	Lane Thomas	105.55	6.68	15.80
4	Jacob Young	100.42	6.37	15.76
5	Ke’Bryan Hayes	105.22	6.71	15.67
6	Elias Díaz	108.11	6.92	15.62
7	Ian Happ	107.11	6.87	15.59
8	Bryan Reynolds	106.63	6.88	15.50
9	Jordan Westburg	103.82	6.71	15.47
10	Matt Chapman	112.72	7.30	15.45
11	Paul DeJong	105.67	6.86	15.39
12	Miguel Amaya	106.56	6.95	15.33
13	Michael A. Taylor	106.51	6.96	15.29
14	José Caballero	102.49	6.71	15.28
15	Mitch Haniger	105.52	6.92	15.24
16	Justin Turner	95.88	6.30	15.23
17	José Ramírez	109.21	7.19	15.19
18	Oswaldo Cabrera	100.69	6.63	15.19
19	Anthony Santander	109.49	7.21	15.19
20	Fernando Tatis Jr.	109.23	7.19	15.18
21	Shea Langeliers	107.72	7.09	15.18
22	Pete Alonso	109.89	7.25	15.15
23	Davis Schneider	102.82	6.80	15.11
24	Ha-Seong Kim	100.77	6.67	15.10
25	Brendan Rodgers	104.07	6.90	15.09

This isn’t a list of the top 25 hitters in baseball, but there are very few duds on this list. The ability to generate excellent bat speed with a short speed is a valuable trait.

Looked at a different way, measuring acceleration, Langford takes the shortest time to get to point of contact. From the start of his swing to full speed (at point of contact) for him takes 184.80 milliseconds. In comparison, Isaac Paredes’ swing takes 52 additional milliseconds.

Name	Avg Bat Speed (fps)	Swing Length (ft)	Calculated Acceleration	Time to Full Speed (ms)
Langford, Wyatt	73.97	6.83	400.29	184.80
Witt Jr., Bobby	75.19	7.02	402.55	186.78
Thomas, Lane	71.96	6.74	383.93	187.44
Díaz, Elias	73.71	7.00	388.02	189.96
Hayes, Ke’Bryan	71.74	6.83	376.71	190.43
Chapman, Matt	76.86	7.33	402.86	190.78
DeJong, Paul	72.05	6.90	376.04	191.60
Westburg, Jordan	70.78	6.82	367.52	192.85
Haniger, Mitch	71.94	6.96	374.17	192.55
Reynolds, Bryan	72.70	7.04	375.30	193.72
Turner, Justin	65.37	6.36	338.68	193.21
Langeliers, Shea	73.44	7.15	377.35	194.63
Amaya, Miguel	72.66	7.08	371.96	195.27
Alonso, Pete	74.92	7.33	382.73	195.76
Schneider, Davis	70.11	6.87	369.25	196.59
Taylor, Michael A.	72.62	7.12	373.99	197.03
Caballero, José	69.88	6.86	363.11	197.16
India, Jonathan	70.53	6.94	367.13	197.60
Contreras, William	74.24	7.30	377.36	196.73
Happ, Ian	73.03	7.19	367.79	198.61
Jiménez, Eloy	74.58	7.34	379.04	196.77
Bregman, Alex	70.51	6.95	364.44	197.82
Rodgers, Brendan	70.95	6.99	366.09	198.42
Tatis Jr., Fernando	74.47	7.35	377.49	197.28
Correa, Carlos	74.50	7.35	377.59	197.31

And here is the bottom 25 in the same measurement.

Name	Avg Bat Speed (fps)	Swing Length (ft)	Calculated Acceleration	Time to Full Speed (ms)
Paredes, Isaac	67.62	7.99	286.15	236.30
Arenado, Nolan	69.47	8.16	295.71	234.92
Báez, Javier	75.42	8.68	327.77	230.12
Altuve, Jose	68.83	7.89	300.36	229.15
Hoskins, Rhys	71.87	8.06	320.54	224.20
Candelario, Jeimer	70.72	7.91	316.12	223.70
Triolo, Jared	70.98	7.94	317.38	223.65
Semien, Marcus	67.95	7.54	306.02	222.05
García, Adolis	72.57	8.05	327.30	221.72
Ruiz, Keibert	63.54	7.03	287.05	221.35
Schwarber, Kyle	71.49	7.72	321.15	221.06
Murphy, Sean	68.70	7.41	306.85	219.73
Story, Trevor	71.48	7.61	336.95	218.98
García, Avisaíl	73.13	7.79	333.89	218.84
Gallo, Joey	71.80	7.58	328.11	218.45
Buxton, Byron	74.69	8.14	342.59	218.02
Senzel, Nick	69.30	7.54	318.62	217.51
Castellanos, Nick	70.13	7.63	322.46	217.47
Taylor, Tyrone	70.80	7.69	325.73	217.36
Dubón, Mauricio	70.06	7.59	323.56	216.53
Ahmed, Nick	67.87	7.32	314.50	215.80
Goldschmidt, Paul	71.78	7.74	332.83	215.66
Perkins, Blake	71.58	7.72	331.98	215.63
Tovar, Ezequiel	70.53	7.59	327.62	215.29
Suárez, Eugenio	71.38	7.67	332.08	214.96

So far, Langford has looked a little outmatched early in his MLB career, but that’s not all that shocking for a hitter who was still playing college baseball at this time last year. And his ability to generate excellent power from a compact swing is the foundation of an excellent hitter. He also showed exceptional plate discipline in the minors last year, where he had an 18% walk rate and a 17% strikeout rate.

Give him some time, and the pieces are in place for Langford to be truly special.