I owe George Springer an apology. Back in March, I wrote an article with a very simple premise: If Springer is terrible to get off the ground, the Blue Jays must be ready to sit down. He was in awe at the start of spring training, having been a sub-average player for two consecutive seasons, and Zips considered him the seventh-highest outfielder on the team. Not the seventh best defensive outfielder; Zips expects Springer to play 2.2 wars per 600 sets, but still worse than the predictions of the other six Blue Jays outfielders. I’m not saying he’s washed or anything, but I’m worried Springer might offer more of the same thing, and the Blue Jays will continue to run him there even if they have a better option. I don’t have to worry.
“I actually feel great,” Springer told MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson when he raised those bad spring training numbers. “For me, it’s about the process. It’s not about the outcome. I want to make sure I’m swaying on the right court and getting rid of the swing. Yes, obviously everyone wants to see the ball hitting the grass, but for me, specifically, I work on the mechanical side.” Then the season started and Springer went out to support those words. He is reviving. A few months behind his 36th birthday, he has had 1.8 wars, and his 143 WRC+ is the best mark he has proposed since 2020’s fresh 30-year-old Astro. He has had his highest home run pace since 2019 and has a career-best 12.4% walking rate. So Springer went further, hitting more power, and thanks to a .303 Babip, his best power since 2016, he scored on average over the years. How did he do it?
Let’s start with board discipline, because Springer swings less frequently. Springer has always had a good plate discipline, but his 19.4% chase rate is the lowest in his entire career. He cuts the chase rate against fastball, play and off speedball. If you keep scoring at home, that’s all the balls.
Springer also swung less frequently on the field in the area, resulting in more strikes and more strikeouts. Still, the trade-offs are worth it.
Springer’s Walk and Shock-up
| season | bb% | k% |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2024 | 9.3 | 18.1 |
| 2025 | 12.4 | 19.4 |
| Change | +3.1 | +1.3 |
All of these extra walks give Springer the best benchmark percentage of his career. It was not only him who called aggressive. So far this season, 49% of his swings have surfaced on the heart of the plate. That was his highest speed since 2015. The strike swing is great, but especially when swaying on the court, you can really do even better damage. Check out the heat map below to compare his swing speeds in 2024 and 2025.
Springer cuts the court especially at the bottom and bottom of the area. This won’t happen in a vacuum. The lower swing rate on the lower court is because breaking the ball tends to decrease, while Springer’s swing on the break ball in the area has dropped to 68% from 75% last season. This is important because these are not usually the courts hit by the ball.
Before the 2023 season, I wrote about how Springer changed his approach many times over the years, but always managed to be a great batsman. As he got older and lost his pace, he began to pull the ball into the air more to make the most of his strength. He has gotten rid of that over the past two seasons, his numbers have surfaced, but now he has gotten rid of those low balls and see what happened to his flying ball speed.
It’s right there. This season, Springer’s tough balls were hit, the second highest game of his entire career. As a result, his Wobacon and Xwobacon (when he made connections and expected production) were the highest in their years. It’s a long story, Springer did a better job of swinging, causing him to do the most damage. He still has underperformed because he hasn’t started pulling the ball like he used to-many of his fly balls will go deep into the midfield where they’re more likely to be caught–but he’s also tearing a lot of lines along the left line. This is a big step forward.
Springer’s work in the game is another reason: he hits the ball harder. His 45.1% tough rate and 90.1 mph average exit rate are the highest in his entire career. What’s really interesting is that Springer’s 90th percentile exit speed was 105.7 mph, the highest career difference. In fact, it’s no much higher than the past two seasons. Springer didn’t unlock new power; he cut the unfortunate situation to a large extent, and all his contacts were involved.
Sports Info Solutions classifies only 13% of his balls as soft, and as you can see, it’s the lowest number he ever proposed. Knowing all of this – Springer’s contact quality figures have risen to a large extent, mainly because he cuts misfortune and he pulls the ball into the air more often – you don’t think he’s actually waving harder, but he’s doing that, too. His average bat speed increased from 71.9 mph last season to 73.1 mph this season. Even if you control the pitch type and position, he will swing harder, swing more, and hit the ball in front.
As you would expect, harder swings made Springer better at speed than he has done over the years. Springer has played fastballs with .332 WOBA over the past two seasons. This season, he is .427. If you look at severe speeds, splitting will become more extreme. On 97 mph or higher, these numbers were 0.232 in 2023 and 2024, and .449 this season. Among the players in 97 mph, Springer’s .438 Xwoba put him in the 94th percentile. Not only did he turn his back against fastball, he has become one of the best batsmen in the league against extreme speed.
Meanwhile, Springer’s output against Speed Stadium has dropped in a big way. He has figured out how to catch the fastball, but it makes him vulnerable to something soft. All in all, it’s a good trade-off, especially since he doesn’t miss the speed pitch more often. He just made a weak contact with them. In the entire league, less than 15% of the balls are on serving, while 29% of the balls break and 55% of the fastballs are. Generally speaking, being a fastball batsman is better than a change batsman.
Springer and reporters have some shrouded in the changes he has taken this season, but it seems safe to think he is preparing for the fastball, not the past few years. And he didn’t sway by chance. “I don’t want to swing,” he told Toronto stars Mike Wilner. “I think last year and at some point in the spring, I was in trouble and I didn’t want to wave what I wanted.
Not all of these changes are usually together. I mean, a lot of people do it. Springer did a better job of swinging on a court where he could play, so his bat speed was higher, which was no surprise. Again, he swings on higher courts, so no wonder he hits the ball more frequently. But the player who suddenly starts swinging doesn’t always start swinging harder. It’s hard to maintain an aggressive swing when you take a new, less aggressive approach. Players who start waving and whistling harder often don’t see their square speed increase. Players who encounter the ball in front usually see their pull rate rise, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Understanding this, there is nothing to scream at is that Springer’s current stripes are totally unsustainable. Yes, he will calm down at some point and his Babipu may change. But faster swings, newly discovered ability to catch up with speed, and better board discipline are not likely to be good news. His method on the plate has changed in many ways over the years, some more subtle than others. What we see now is encouraging. Springer wields harder on a better court and in some important ways he looks a lot like his old self.
