A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast show. In the show, a hitter indicated his bat speed in the 2024 season. That player is known as a good contact hitter and he’s not a power hitter. Hence, it’s quite interesting to hear him talking about bat speed.
Bat speed data has been available since 2024. After listening to the show, I began to think about players’ bat speed in the 2024 season. To understand a little bit more, I decided to check on the statcast website.
Firstly, let’s take a look at bat speed leaders. Stanton’s average bat speed was over 80 mph in 2024. Among qualified batters, he’s the only one with average bat speed over 80 mph. Last year, Stanton had a hard-hit rate over 50% and blasted 27 home runs. Moreover, Oneil Cruz blasted 21 home runs in 2024 and had a hard-hit rate over 50% as well. His bat speed was 78.6 mph, on average.
In the meantime, 2 players’ average bat speed was over 77 mph. Kyle Schwarber’s bat speed was 77.5 mph in 2024. Last season, he smashed 38 home runs and his hard-hit rate was over 50%. Aaron Judge won the 2024 AL MVP award. He crushed 58 home runs last year. His hard-hit rate was over 60% and his bat speed was in the top 5 of the leaderboard.
At the same time, 3 other players’ average bat speed was 76.5 mph or higher. Jo Adell’s average bat speed was 76.7 mph in 2024. He finished the season with a career-high 20 home runs. But his hard-hit rate was below 45%. Furthermore, Matt Chapman had 27 home runs last season. His hard-hit rate was 48.3% and his average bat speed was 76.6 mph. Yordan Alvarez’s bat speed was 76.5 mph. He smashed 35 home runs and had a hard-hit rate of 49.7%.
Finally, let’s look at some players, whose bat speed might be a concern. Luiz Arraez is a good contact hitter. However, his bat speed was only 63.1 mph, on average. His hard-hit rate was below 25%, but he has a batting average over .300. Furthermore, 2 qualified batters’ average bat speed was below 65 mph. Nicky Lopez had a hard-hit rate below 20% and his batting average was below .250. Meanwhile, Steven Kwan’s average bat speed was 64.4 mph in 2024. Well, his hard-hit rate was 23.7%, but his batting average was .292. And Justin Turner, who smashed 23 home runs in 2023, only hit 11 home runs in 2024. Turner’s average bat speed was 65.1 mph and his hard-hit rate dropped from 39% to 32.5%.
With bat speed data available, there’s another way to evaluate a player. As we can see, in the top 5 of the bat speed leaderboard, only Jo Adell’s hard-hit rate was below 50%. At the same time, Kwan and Arraez are good contact hitters, but their bat speed isn’t impressive. In the 2025 season, it will be worthwhile to watch several things. Are we going to see another player with an average bat speed over 80 mph? Also, for those players, whose bat speed was below 65 mph, will their bat speed increase in 2025?
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