New MLB Bat Speed Data Only One Piece Of The Puzzle
Image credit: Giancarlo Stanton (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)
Baseball Savant added bat speed measurements to its pages today. It’s yet another excellent addition to an outstanding website. It will allow a whole lot of people to study a significant aspect of hitting that has largely been off limits to significant study until now.
And now, I’ll offer a caution that was given to me by multiple people who work with professional and major league hitters: pay attention to bat speed, but don’t over-emphasize it.
Bat speed is extremely valuable. It’s an important foundational aspect of hitting. But when it comes to big league hitters, it’s one of multiple foundational aspects, along with barrel control/hand-to-eye coordination, swing path, swing length, pitch recognition and timing.
Being able to swing the bat faster than other big leaguers gives a hitter more power potential. Combined with the other foundational pieces, it can help a hitter become a star. Left alone, it just helps a hitter strike out in more dramatic fashion.
If a hitter sells out to get to that bat speed by sacrificing other aspects of their swing, it isn’t always as useful as it would appear. If a hitter with excellent contact skills and plate discipline adds bat speed without selling out, it could turn a solid hitter into a much better one.
Scouts and hitting coaches have seen this for long before bat speed could be measured quantifiably. Gary Sheffield used exceptional bat speed to become one of the best hitters of his generation. Lastings Milledge’s exceptional bat speed led to just 33 home runs in a six-year MLB career.
When it comes to average bat speed (which measures the average of a hitter’s fastest 90% of his swings), the leaderboard is generally a group of excellent hitters, but Javier Baez’s appearance is a reminder that bat speed isn’t everything.
| 1 | Stanton, Giancarlo | 80.6 |
| 2 | Cruz, Oneil | 77.7 |
| 3 | Schwarber, Kyle | 77 |
| 4 | Chapman, Matt | 76.9 |
| 5 | Acuña Jr., Ronald | 76.7 |
| 6 | Morel, Christopher | 76.7 |
| 7 | Judge, Aaron | 76.5 |
| 8 | Adell, Jo | 76.2 |
| 9 | Rodríguez, Julio | 76.1 |
| 10 | Soto, Juan | 76.1 |
| 11 | Alvarez, Yordan | 76 |
| 12 | Contreras, Willson | 75.7 |
| 13 | Sánchez, Jesús | 75.7 |
| 14 | Trout, Mike | 75.7 |
| 15 | Soler, Jorge | 75.6 |
| 16 | Henderson, Gunnar | 75.6 |
| 17 | Guerrero Jr., Vladimir | 75.5 |
| 18 | Báez, Javier | 75.4 |
| 19 | Ohtani, Shohei | 75.4 |
| 20 | Mountcastle, Ryan | 75.2 |
There are players who you have to scan far down the list that also prove this.
Mookie Betts’ average bat speed ranks 180th among the 221 qualified MLB hitters in 2024. Last year’s bat speed metrics when MLB was refining its bat speed algorithms showed Betts as distinctly middle of the pack. It doesn’t matter. Betts has a fast enough bat to hit for power, and his barrel control, pitch recognition and timing are all exceptional. Similarly, Ozzie Albies ranks 178th.
Notably, both Betts and Albies have among the shortest swing lengths (as measured by MLB) with 6.9 feet. That ranks in the top 30 in shortest swings among qualifiers.
There are plenty of fascinating studies that can be done with this new bat speed data. For example, going forward, it will help to show when hitters are improving or declining, and help to demonstrate aging rates, something Tom Tango has already begun to explore.
There are plenty of excellent projects to be done about the variability of bat speed in a hitter, or looking at how a switch hitter’s bat speed is similar from both sides or dramatically different. We need to learn whether 90th percentile bat speed, max bat speed, average bat speed, bat speed on balls in play or some other measurement is the best way to rank bat speed. Swing length is also ripe for study.
One other bat speed note: Figuring out exactly where to measure bat speed is a challenging question in itself. Bat speed measured at the tip of the bat will be way higher at the sweet spot (MLB is using six inches from the top of the bat). The MLB measurements aren’t measured necessarily the same way as a Blast Motion sensor or other devices, so when looking at bat speed, make sure you’re comparing apples to apples.
So, as everyone starts to dive in, just a word of caution: Bat speed is important, but it’s only one piece of a very complex puzzle.
