The White Sox had the worst offense in baseball last season, scoring just 507 runs—97 fewer than the Rays, who ranked second to last in run production. However, there has been an interesting development in Spring Training that gives some hope those numbers could improve.
Jon Anderson recently analyzed the players who have made the biggest gains in bat speed this spring. Among the 22 players he identified as swinging at least 2 mph faster in Spring Training, six are competing for a spot on the White Sox roster. Increased bat speed enhances swing efficiency and boosts exit velocity.
Brandon Dury, who is competing for one of the White Sox infield spots, saw the biggest increase from last season with a 5.4 mph increase. Veteran catcher Matt Thaiss saw his swing speed increase by 5.1 mph while Bobby Dalbec, who is looking to earn the backup first base job, jumped from 72.3 mph last season to 75.4 mph. Brooks Baldwin, Lenyn Sosa and Korey Lee also had their swing speeds jump by at least 2 mph.
Increased Bat Speed
I looked at competitive swings from last season and compared to this year's early spring data. I filtered out the below-average guys from last year to keep this only to decent power hitters.
22 hitters have swung at least 2mph harder this spring: pic.twitter.com/GfxdATQw5e
— Jon Anderson (@JonPgh) March 10, 2025
The early results are promising. Lee is off to a strong start, batting .385 through his first 13 Spring Training at-bats, while Thaiss is hitting .316 in 19 at-bats. Sosa has posted a .364 average with an .899 OPS over 22 at-bats, and Drury is hitting .300 with a home run and an .890 OPS in 30 at-bats.
Baseball Savant considers a fast swing speed as anything over 75 mph. With the recent offseason adjustments all six players have eclipsed that mark, which was not the case last season. All six players listed had an average swing speed in the 71 to 72 mph range. For reference, Shohei Ohtani, widely considered the best hitter in baseball, had an average of 76.3 mph, the eighth fastest in the MLB.
This offseason, the White Sox front office brought in Ryan Fuller, formerly the co-hitting coach for the Baltimore Orioles. Under his guidance last season, the Orioles had two players—Gunnar Henderson and Ryan Mountcastle—rank among MLB’s top 25 hitters.
However, as Anderson points out, the jumps could result in inconsistent readings.
The New York Times reported that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf reportedly said he is “not an analytics person” while the front office hired private outside firms to handle its number crunching. Using a third party made it difficult for the White Sox to find a competitive edge since most other teams develop their own customized models for players. When their analytic people provide data, it often differs from the numbers they receive from the third party, making it nearly impossible to evaluate players. Players also complained about the lack of resources available compared to other MLB clubs.
Anderson suggests that the presence of multiple White Sox and Rockies players on the list could indicate that the jumps in bat speed were due to inaccurate readings from the White Sox tracking equipment.
