Make what you will of April performances. Small sample sizes, lousy weather and quirks of the schedule can send false signals. Alec Bohm (.598 slugging) and Adolis Garcia (.585) crushed the ball last April, for instance, only to lose pop the rest of the way (.410 and .359, respectively).
On the flip side, last April provided hints of breakout seasons for CJ Abrams and Elly De La Cruz.
Keeping that caveat in mind, here are the seven most improved hitters in MLB this month and why they are better.
Kyren Paris, Angels, 23 years old
A career .110 hitter with the Angels and .167 last year in the minors, Paris sought offseason help from Aaron Judge’s personal hitting coach, Richard Schenck. The result: Paris is hitting like Judge. The MLB leader in slugging (.842), Paris swings and hovers his front foot and loads on his back hip just like Judge.
Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks, 24
His transformation to a pull-side monster is amazing. Carroll is pulling half the balls he puts into play and crushing them. His exit velocity is up 7 mph, the biggest improvement in MLB.
An all-fields hitter last year, Carroll distributed his hits rather evenly: 55 to the pull side, 51 to the middle and 30 the other way. Check out the hit spray chart this season for Carroll:
How did he do it? By drastically changing his hand position and the bat angle of his stance:
And changing his stride from a closed one to a neutral one, as you can see where his front foot lands:
Spencer Torkelson, Tigers, 25
After hitting .219 last year, Torkelson came to camp so buried on the depth chart he was told to get some work in the outfield to find him at bats. Colt Keith was set to take his job at first base. Injuries, however, opened playing time for Torkelson. He seized the opportunity.
Torkelson is crushing the ball, especially against spin. He leads MLB in slugging percentage increase (+.299). He does not appear to have made major changes, but he has tweaked his setup. You can see in the pictures below that he begins from a much more athletic posture— more “into his legs,” with his knees bent and his head over his toes rather than a more flat-footed position. He is catching more balls out front, leading to more pull-side power.
Brice Turang, Brewers, 25
This is a stunning transformation. Turang has the biggest increase in bat speed (+3.3 mph), the third-biggest increase in exit velocity (+6.3 mph) and the fifth-highest increase in hard-hit rate (+19.3%). He looks like a different hitter. As you can see in these pictures (cutters in the same location), he opened his stance, raised his bat angle and is turning more fully through the baseball while catching it more out front.
Ben Rice, Yankees, 26
Rice hit .171 last season, breaking the franchise record for the worst batting average for a first-year player with at least 150 at bats. The previous mark, .175 by Ron Woods, had stood for 56 years.
With an added 15 pounds, Rice this year is crushing fastballs (.964 slug with 10 of his 11 career homers on fastballs) and hitting the ball as hard as anybody in the majors. The extra weight has helped, but Rice made some serious swing changes—which you can see below—to tap into crazy power.
Pete Alonso, Mets, 30
Alonso has been on a slow decline when facing elite velocity. His batting average on pitches 95 mph and faster has gone down every year since 2020: .353, .295, .287, .238, .200.
This year? He is off to a .333 start against extreme heat with two home runs—already one fewer homer than he had all of last year against elite fastballs. He has increased his average exit velocity by 5.7 mph, tied for the sixth-best improvement. And he only trails Carroll in increased barrel rate.
To be quicker to the ball, Alonso has adopted a slightly higher leg kick and adjusted his hand position in the loading phase.
George Springer, Blue Jays, 35
Springer was on a steady three-year decline. His OPS and exit velocity were down three straight years while his ground ball percentage increased each year. Then in spring training, he hit .108 and slugged .216. Ouch. Was he done?
Suddenly, he is mashing the ball again, with the highest line-drive rate of his career and the lowest chase rate. His speed and defense may be declining as you would expect as a player ages through his mid-30s, but Springer has reached back in time for the kind of offensive firepower we haven’t seen from him in years.
Honorable mentions
Tyler Soderstrom, Athletics, 23; Wilyer Abreu, Red Sox, 25; Logan O’Hoppe, Angels, 25; Jung Hoo Lee, Giants, 26; Cedric Mullins, Orioles, 30; Carson Kelly, Cubs, 30; Jorge Polanco, Mariners, 31.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as MLB’s Most-Improved Hitters: What’s Behind Their Early Season Success?.
