Exit Velocity is the first word I learned from the statcast glossary. According to the MLB.com, Exit Velocity measures the speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact. Since it’s related to “contact”, it is tracked for all batted balls. It’s probably the most common statcast number since we frequently watch it on screen.
Statcast data is available since 2015. In that season, Miguel Cabrera was the leader of exit velocity with a 93.7 mph average exit velocity. David Ortiz’s average exit velocity was 93 mph in the 2015 season. In 2016, Ortiz was 40-year-young, his average exit velocity was 93.2 mph, it’s even “faster” than in 2015. Nelson Cruz was in the top 5 in the last 5 seasons. How good was he? From 2015 to 2019, Nelson Cruz crushed 204 home runs, leading the majors. Nolan Arenado hit 199 homers and Mike Trout hit 187 homers. Nelson Cruz has 16 home runs so far this season.
Aaron Judge was the exit velocity leader in the last 3 seasons. Last season, Judge’s average exit velocity was 96 mph, that number is just unbelievable. However, injury is a major problem. He’s been placed on the injured list several times these seasons. The same problem also bothers Judge’s teammate Giancarlo Stanton. Joey Gallo swings really hard and can hammer baseballs. His average exit velocity ranked 2nd in the majors in each 2017 and 2018.
Miguel Sano is the exit velocity leader so far this season. He has been in the top 5 three times in these four seasons. Sano has 13 home runs, but he also has 85 strikeouts.
Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the NL MVP favorites. His average exit velocity was 90.4 mph last season. This season, Tatis Jr. reaches to the next level, his average velocity is 95.9 mph so far and Tatis has 15 homers.
Christian Yelich still swings hard and makes solid contacts. His average exit velocity was 93.2 mph last season. It’s actually even “faster” this season because Yelich’s average exit velocity is 94.3 mph so far. However, he hits a lot of balls on the ground. His ground-ball rate goes to 51.4% from 42.8% last season.
Gregory Polanco’s exit velocity reaches his career high this season. His average exit velocity is 93.8 mph this season, while the number was 89.4 mph. But Polanco’s whiff rate also reaches his career high and he has been struck out 63 times. He’s hitting only .154/.217/.322 so far.
It’s really hard to ignore Mike Trout, the best hitter in the majors or maybe the best hitter in baseball history. His average exit velocity is 93.6 mph this season. In 2015, Trout’s average exit velocity was 92.9 mph, ranking 3rd in the majors. Trout has 16 home runs so far, 5th in the majors.
Exit velocity can help us evaluate whether a player can hit the ball “harder”. However, a batter has to hit the ball and a hard-hit ball does not always guarantee positive results. Christian Yelich probably hits too many balls on the ground. Gregory Polanco hits the ball hard, but he also misses a lot. Maybe this season is too short, thus, some players don’t have enough time to make adjustments and see the positive results?
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