You¡¯re definitely familiar with hearing ¡°best shape of his life,¡± an annual spring tradition. Pitchers have their own version, which is usually something like ¡°I have a new pitch.¡± Let¡¯s talk about the batting equivalent ¨C or, at least, the one that isn¡¯t ¡°I¡¯m swinging a bat that¡¯s shaped like a torpedo.¡± Let¡¯s talk about stances, and positioning in the box, and who¡¯s doing something different so far.
Different, for what it¡¯s worth, isn¡¯t always better ¨C but it¡¯s at least interesting.
In the past, this was something we¡¯d have to piece together from video, news reports or the good old eye test. But with the release of Statcast metrics for batter stance and positioning in March, we can simplify all of that and look at who actually has changed things significantly. Even though most batters really haven¡¯t, we can see early on in the season a few extremely different setups.
To really show how different some of these are, it¡¯s important to start by showing how static hitters as a whole tend to be. We had, through Wednesday, 189 hitters qualified in both 2024 and ¡®25 ¨C for these purposes, a switch-hitter counts as two different players ¨C and if you look at the average changes for the four main positioning metrics ...
- Depth in box: 0.01 ft deeper
- Distance from plate: .2 ft farther
- Stance width (distance between feet): 0.05 ft. narrower
- Stance angle: -0.27 degrees
¡ you¡¯ll find a whole lot of tiny numbers that essentially say ¡°on average, hitters haven¡¯t moved much.¡± We could round all that to zero, basically. On average, there¡¯s nothing there.
We¡¯re not here for average. Let¡¯s find interesting. We created a throwaway stat to try to rank the hitters who changed the most across those four measurements, and these are the names that popped. Eight, in fact, because that¡¯s how long it took us to get to Elly De La Cruz.
Jorge Polanco, Mariners (as a left-handed batter)
What¡¯s he doing? He closed his stance entirely.
In 2023, Polanco (as a lefty, with the Twins) had one of the sport¡¯s most open stances, at 37¡ã (where 0¡ã would be totally neutral, or feet parallel to one another and aligned on a direct line to the pitcher's mound). In 2024, he went to Seattle, and it was exactly the same: 37¡ã. In 2025, his second year with the Mariners? It couldn¡¯t look more different. In addition to widening his stance by six inches, he¡¯s closed it up almost entirely, coming pretty close to entirely neutral.
It¡¯s not the only change he¡¯s made, because he¡¯s now playing third base instead of his more familiar second base. Last year, working through knee and hamstring injuries, Polanco slashed just .198/.301/.345 as a left-handed hitter, although he¡¯s been better from the left side than the right over his career. Given that he struck out far more from the left side last year (32%) than he did as a righty (22%), it might just be about trying to make some more contact. Or, like everything else for Seattle, maybe it¡¯s about fighting the T-Mobile Park visibility demons.
Jose Siri, Mets
What¡¯s he doing? Everything!
Like Polanco, Siri's stances were relatively consistent in 2023 and ¡®24. Like Polanco, early returns in 2025 look far different ¨C at least, anyway, in terms of setup, if not results. Siri didn¡¯t hit much in 2024 and also hasn¡¯t hit all that much in 2025. (It should go without saying that one hit in nine at-bats tells you almost nothing.)
But, in addition to no longer having that front foot facing back towards the catcher ¨C which, to be honest, just feels a little uncomfortable looking at it ¨C he¡¯s added a foot-and-a-half of stance width here, giving him a much wider base.
Brice Turang, Brewers
What¡¯s he doing? His stance is way narrower.
The opposite of Siri, in just so many ways, because while Siri is a high-excitement outfielder who strikes out a ton and has some pop, Turang is an extremely reliable infielder who makes enough contact, just without very much power to go with it. That's fine when he's doing things like dropping a walk-off bunt to win a game, like he did on Wednesday, but last year, his hard-hit ranking was only in the ninth percentile, in part thanks to second-percentile bat speed.
Yet while Siri¡¯s stance has gotten wider, Turang¡¯s has gotten much narrower, closing up by more than a foot, pushing his center of mass (the green dot in the graphic above) back toward the catcher by six inches.
It¡¯s so early that the fact that he¡¯s hitting .320 doesn¡¯t really matter all that much. What might, though is the fact that the underlying metrics have skyrocketed. In the first week, Turang¡¯s hard-hit rate has gone from last year¡¯s unimpressive 30% to this year¡¯s very good 42%. When he hit a homer on Opening Day in the Bronx, it was hit at 109.8 mph ¨C breaking his previous personal record for exit velocity on any batted ball by more than 1 mph, making this change one that will be extremely interesting to see play out.
Andrés Giménez, Blue Jays
What¡¯s he doing? Mashing. Oh, he¡¯s opened his stance up, too.
Speaking of defensively skilled second basemen with a lot to prove in the box, Gim¨¦nez has been a shocking source of offense for his new Toronto club, hitting three of the team¡¯s first four homers. Again: Seven games of being good after 305 games of a mere .674 OPS the last two seasons can¡¯t be taken with a large enough grain of salt.
And yet: Gim¨¦nez¡¯s hard-hit rate is up from 29% to 36% ¨C while, it should be noted, his strikeout rate has also ticked down and his walk rate up ¨C and the differences in his setup are easily noticeable. In addition to the smaller stance width (eight inches narrower) and the much more open stance, he¡¯s deeper in the box, farther off the plate, and with a much more noticeable leg kick, replacing a previous toe tap.
As expected, it's not an accident. ¡°Even in talking to [Guardians manager] Stephen Vogt at the Winter Meetings when we acquired Gim¨¦nez, that¡¯s one of the things that he mentioned about Andr¨¦s,¡± Toronto manager John Schneider said. ¡°He sometimes played it safe and would be geared toward left field or left-center, and wasn¡¯t taking chances. [Vogt] relayed the same thing we saw, which is that there¡¯s more in there.¡±
Given that he is an elite defender, Gim¨¦nez doesn¡¯t have to hit a whole lot to be valuable. But if he does, there¡¯s still a superstar-level player in here.
MJ Melendez, Royals
What¡¯s he doing? He¡¯s closed his stance a lot.
Melendez hasn¡¯t really changed his back foot placement, or stance width, or much of anything else ¨C except for his front foot, which used to face towards first base, and now has a much more closed and neutral stance.
Melendez hit just .206/.273/.400 last year, so it¡¯s not surprising he¡¯s looking to make changes. Fortunately for us, Melendez told MLB.com¡¯s Anne Rogers exactly what he was doing back in February.
¡°The Royals outfielder spent his offseason in Miami revamping his positioning at the plate,¡± wrote Rogers, ¡°unlearning the big movements that have led to flashes of insane power at times in his young career but also too often to unbalanced swings and unproductive at-bats. The key was for Melendez to simplify the movements and be on time with his swing.¡±
¡°It¡¯s less movement, it¡¯s trying to be on time more consistently,¡± added manager Matt Quatraro. It hasn¡¯t quite worked yet: Melendez has started off with one hit in his first 13 at-bats.
Spencer Torkelson, Tigers
What¡¯s he doing? His stance is narrower, and more open.
Finding a way to write about Torkelson¡¯s early-season success wasn¡¯t the only reason we did this rundown, but it wasn¡¯t not the reason, too. Torkelson, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 Draft, has had such an up (31 homers in 2023) and down (a demotion to Triple-A in 2024) career that he arrived in camp for 2025 without even a secure roster spot, much less a starting job.
He did make the team, and after four walks and a home run on Opening Day, it¡¯s clear that the changes to his swing he started making in Toledo last summer might be having an impact. Torkelson¡¯s stance is much narrower, by a full 10 inches. He's also more open, and he¡¯s deeper and farther away from the plate ¨C sort of like Gim¨¦nez, from the other side.
Like Melendez, his changes have been well-reported ¨C although he claims it¡¯s more about approach and small, subtle adjustments than anything major. That may well be true, but these changes aren¡¯t small ones, either.
Cody Bellinger, Yankees
What¡¯s he doing? He¡¯s narrower and less open.
We only have this data back to midseason 2023, but we¡¯ve been watching Bellinger for nearly a decade now, and if we know anything, we know this: He is a batter who loves to tinker. Here¡¯s references to swing changes in 2019, and 2020, and 2021, and 2023, and assuredly there¡¯s more. It¡¯s just what he does, all the time. This time around, it¡¯s eliminating an open stance in favor of a neutral one, narrowing his feet, and moving back in the box ¨C but closer to the plate.
We assume this won¡¯t be the last time we talk about him in this context.
Elly De La Cruz, Reds (as a left-handed batter)
What¡¯s he doing? He¡¯s finally acting like two different hitters.
When we introduced the stance metrics last month, De La Cruz popped for what he wasn¡¯t doing, which is to say that we specifically called him out as a switch-hitter who set up almost identically from both sides. That¡¯s no longer true. Lefty De La Cruz, always the superior of the two Ellys, has made some pretty serious changes, moving back off the plate and opening up that stance.
It¡¯s nice to see this change in action, because, as former Reds beat writer Charlie Goldsmith recently noted, this was entirely the plan.
¡°It¡¯s a little bit different of a set up this year,¡± new hitting coach Chris Valaika said. ¡°The biggest thing we¡¯re going to focus on with Elly is keeping him aggressive, but being more in control with his forward movement. Moving more through the middle of his body helps with his adjustability. It helps with his decision making.¡±
It¡¯s not like Lefty De La Cruz needed the help, after all, given the career .853 OPS. The real question is: What can they do to improve Righty De La Cruz, who has a mere .601 career mark?
The next five biggest changers: Gavin Lux, Jeremy Peña, Alec Burleson, Max Kepler and Fernando Tatis Jr., who has pretty notably opened his stance, from 29¡ã open to 45¡ã open.
BONUS: Victor Robles, Mariners
What¡¯s he doing? Standing so, so close to the mound.
Robles hasn¡¯t changed his overall setup quite as much as these other hitters, but we wanted to highlight the continuation of something we first noted last month. In a world where it seems like many hitters are trying to move back, to gain more time to see the pitch, Robles moved up during the 2024 season. He¡¯s continued that in 2025, to the point where he is now the closest to the pitcher of any hitter in the Majors, and he¡¯s more than a foot closer than he was last summer.
Robles suggested that former teammate Juan Soto had something to do with it, but there¡¯s a really interesting tradeoff here. By moving up in the box, Robles has less time to react to a fastball, and less time to see the break of a breaking ball. On the other hand: the breakers have less time to break, too. Like with everyone else here, there may be no such thing as a "right way" or a "wrong way" ... just a way that works for you.