Baseball is a game of numbers, and Major League Baseball just released a ton of numbers to try to break the bat.
MLB's Hawkeye tracking system uses 12 cameras around each team's ballpark, five of which operate at 300 frames per second, recording data across the diamond for each pitch. The league spent two years developing a bat-tracking model using the system and announced the results Monday via Statcast.
So what exactly do the numbers tell us about the best hitters in the game? Let's take a closer look:
bat speed
The average swing for a major league batter reaches 111.5 miles per hour.
New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton has the fastest bat in baseball, averaging 80.6 mph. This marks another Statcast victory for Stanton, who is also MLB's breakaway speed king.
Stanton is clearly ahead of the pack when it comes to bat speed. The 34-year-old's speed of 80.6 mph is about 3 mph faster than second place O'Neal Cruz of the Pittsburgh Pirates (120.7 mph). Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (77.0 mph), San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Chapman (76.9 mph) and Atlanta Braves outfielder (76.7 mph) rounded out the top five.
At the other end of the spectrum, San Diego Padres infielder Luis Arraez ranks last in bat speed at 102.4 mph. But that didn't slow him down, as the former Miami Marlin won back-to-back batting titles in 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, Stanton's split batting averages were .230/.283/.452.
swing length
MLB also tracked swing length, which calculates the feet a bat moves during a swing.
Detroit Tigers infielder Javier Báez has the longest swing in MLB at 8.7 feet. Stanton is not far behind Baez, ranking second at 8-foot-4.
Once again, Arraez came in at the bottom of the Statcast category. His 5.9-foot swing is the shortest in the majors. His slow but short swing is very effective, and on his 43.5% of swings he squares with MLB-leading velocity (his 80% of maximum achievable escape velocity).
For context, the batter has a .372 batting average and a .659 slugging percentage when squaring up the ball.
And when it's not? Those numbers plummeted to a .127 batting average and .144 slugging percentage.
explosion
Explosions occur when a batter squares up the ball with minimal bat speed. In other words, it's the most valuable swing in the game.
Star players like the Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and the Yankees' Juan Soto rank high on the list, but none are as explosive as William Contreras. The Milwaukee Brewers catcher has made 58 such swings, eight more than Soto and 10 more than Ohtani, for a 34.5% explosion rate, negating the MLB average of 13.7%.
Here are five things you need to know about New York Yankees slugger Juan Soto.