Super Early Bat Speed Improvements from the Guardians
Grant Fink, you have done miracles on me
With a new hitting coach comes a new hitting philosophy, and the change from Chris Valaika to Grant Fink has been very apparent in only the first four games of the season.
The Guardians have been itching for power for years... the last team with an above average SLG was the 2018 squad. Last year’s group finally made it to league average, but with the departure of Josh Naylor there were questions about the Guardians power output going into 2025. Bringing in Santana and Jones was part of the plan to recoup and eventually improve the teams ability to slug, but the real improvements have come from bat speed gains from many Guardians regulars.
Fringe hitters such as: Gabriel Arias, Brayan Rocchio, Bo Naylor, and Daniel Schneemann, have all seen swing speed improvements of ~1-1.5mph. These are big gains that will help all four of these hitters become bigger contributors than they were a year ago.
Gabby Arias has always owned great raw power, and now it is undeniably elite. His average bat speed so far in the young season is 76mph which ranks in the 95th percentile (71.5mph is league average).
Brayan Rocchio added 1.4mph to his swing from the left side. His lack of pop from the left side was a big problem last year, as he slugged a paltry .298 against RHP.
Bo Naylor’s bat speed improved from 70.6 to 72.1mph, or from the 26th to the 59th percentile. Naylor had the same bat speed in 2023 when he posted a fantastic .809 OPS. Naylor has also been chasing less and whiffing less so far this season (and spring).
Daniel Schneemann was an irrelevant 33rd round pick before a bat speed program enabled him to have a breakout season in the minors at the age of 27 in 2024, and he did not stop there with the bat speed gains; Schnee increased his bat speed from 70.7mph to 73.3mph (so far). With his plate discipline the new raw power increases his chances of being a real contributor this year.
Then there are the expected contributors who have also added bat speed this season: Kyle Manzardo, Lane Thomas, and Nolan Jones.
Kyle Manzardo gained 1.3mph on his swing and well... the results are speaking for themselves already. Manzardo’s power output was mostly reliant on optimal launch angles towards the pull side, and now with true power behind his swing he is primed for a huge season.
Lane Thomas was a 28 home run hitter only two years ago and has an even better chance of reenacting that season with his bat speed increasing 1.3mph, from about average to the 77th percentile in MLB. His bat speed is now better than it was when he nearly hit 30 homers with Washington.
Nolan Jones had an injury riddled 2024 that stole 1.7mph from his previous year’s bat speed. Now that he has returned home and is healthy, he has recovered his bat speed and added another 0.7mph.
As a team the Guardians averaged 70.7mph swing speed in 2024, and in 2025 it has jumped to 72.1mph. They have achieved this with only a 1% increase in whiff rate and now find themselves on the better half of the league in both of those categories.
When all 30 teams are graphed based on whiff rate and bat speed you can see that the Guardians are in the quadrant of teams who swing hard and make a lot of contact, alongside some of the best hitting teams in baseball.
As opposed to the same graph from 2024, where they were in the lower left quadrant; teams that made a lot of contact but did not swing hard:
An important note: I initially questioned if this was a real increase or just a product of last years average being dragged down by players being tired later in the season but that is not the case. 2024’s team average bat speed in Mar/Apr was in line with the rest of the season, which gives me optimism that the same will happen this year.
Grant Fink and his hitting changes have put the Guardians on a new path, fueled by power. I am very excited to see how these improvements hold up over time and what the long term outcomes are for the players I mentioned as well as the team as a whole!