Spring Training Recap: March 11, 2025

I did want first to update because a lot of you asked about my son and his concussion. We had some doctor visits yesterday and test done. While he does have a concussion, everything came back normal as far as no brain damage or bleed. He is much more himself this morning and we are thankful for that. Thank you to everyone who reached out! This community/family is the best!

Baseball is in full swing, Spring Training at least! Every day, we will feature the Spring Training recap, breaking down everything you need to know that happened on the field. From the top prospects performers to players with pitch mix changes and more, I break it down.

Spring Training brings a lot of noise, but what is legit and what isn’t? This article should help you out everyday with what the important takeaways are.

Monday Exit Velocity Leaders

Monday Whiff Leaders

March 10 Spring Training Breakdown

Austin Wells, C, New York Yankees

Wells the leadoff hitter? This seems like a real possibility for the Yankees and if so, Well is going to be primed to score a ton of runs. It honestly has the feel of Schwarber leading off. Blasting a 100 mph home run on Monday, Wells added an additional hard-hit ball at 96 mph.

While he did not light up that stat sheet in 2024, Wells hit 11 of his 13 home runs in his final 260 plate appearances and had 22 extra base hits over that span. The fact that the majority of Wells’ batted balls have landed in the 100-110 mph interval is impressive. The barrel rate rose all year and sat at 11 percent from July forward.

Wells has seen improvements in air percentage this year while also pulling the ball more often, which bodes well for the lefty in Yankee Stadium. He has also shown growth in contact and chase rate this year, showing Wells’ skills will play exceptionally well in a points league or OBP format.

Bo Bichette, SS, Toronto Blue Jays

Bichette homered on Monday, his second of the spring and looks like he is ready for a huge bounceback season in 2025. All three of Bichette’s batted balls were at or north of 100 mph with the home run leaving the bat at 109.5 mph.

Running a 52 percent hard-hit rate with a 95 mph average and 90th percentile exit velocity near 108 mph stands out in a big way for a hitter like Bichette. Last season he ran an 89 mph average exit velocity but his barrel rate dipped down to 4.4 percent. So far this spring, its north of eight percent.

It is a contract year and we typically see hitters perform well in those seasons. Bichette just turned 27 years old and could bounce back in a big way in 2025.

Triston McKenzie, RHP, Cleveland Guardians

Jumps in velocity are sometimes to be taken with a grain of salt, especially in small spring samples. But with someone like McKenzie, seeing his velocity up early is important. He has been up all spring and continued to be up 2.5 mph on Monday even with his longest outing.

On 33 fastballs, McKenzie averaged 93.6 mph and topped at 95.2 mph. That is a mark he has hit just twice in the last two years. In 2020, McKenzie averaged 92.8 mph on his fastball, which is the highest mark of his career.

McKenzie generated 13 whiffs on Monday, five coming on the fastball and four a piece on his curveball and slider. Both of the secondaries are showing improved velocity as well and are showing improved results with it.

Keep an eye on McKenzie this spring. Seeing the velocity and an average of 20 inches of IVB is worth talking about. He has to throw strikes though and that has been an issue this spring. Though on Monday, he threw strikes at a strong 65 percent clip.

Gabriel Moreno, C, Arizona Diamondbacks

Moreno blasted a home run and added a single on Monday, but the important thing to note here is that both balls had exit velocities north of 108 mph and were in the air. Moreno has been known to run good average exit velocities, but does not generate barrels thanks to the ground ball rate.

So far this spring, Moreno has an impressive 31 percent barrel rate, yes I know it is a small sample. But Moreno also has a 62 percent hard-hit rate and has seven of his 16 batted balls hit north of 108 mph. That is as many as he hit all last year during the regular season.

The contact skills are there, the ability to hit for power is there. It is just all about lifting the ball, which Moreno is doing more. Let’s hope it holds into the regular season.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers

Yamamoto was dominant on Monday, striking out seven Diamondback hitters and generating 12 whiffs.

His fastball velocity was back up to his 2024 average,e which is good considering he threw 75 pitches in the outing. The splitter was splitting batters as he generated seven whiffs on that pitch while sitting 91 mph.

Yamamoto throws a deep arsenal of pitches of at you and can miss bats with them all. Monday’s start of five innings has him looking ready for the Dodgers-Cubs series in Japan.

Hunter Greene, RHP, Cincinnati Reds

Greene continued his dominant spring on Monday, squaring off against the Padres regulars and striking out five over four innings of one run ball. He needed just 49 pitches to get through his four innings of work and landed 37 of them for strikes. He generated an impressive 11 whiffs and landed 37 of his 49 pitches for strikes.

The fastball was pumping as Green averaged 99.3 mph, after sitting 97.5 mph last season. It’s shape was similar, but the velocity jump led to five whiffs on the pitch while it topped out at 101 mph.

Greene also saw a velocity uptick on his slider and splitter. Naturally, with a two mph bump, the splitter saw a bit more carry and a tad less horizontal movement. It was still a sharp pitch.

In 2024 we saw the upside of what Greene can be and it looks like he is ready to work carry that momentum into 2025.

Griffin Canning, RHP, New York Mets

With the injuries the Mets have sustained in the rotation, Canning seems like he has a spot in the rotation and if he was not locked in before, he certainly helped his case on Monday. Canning struck out five batters across 3.2 scoreless innings of work. He did not issue a walk and allowed just one hit.

Canning generated 11 whiffs on Monday with them distributed pretty evenly between his four-seam, slider, changeup, and even sinker. The movement profile on Canning’s slider is slightly different this year and his changeup is showing more depth. The Mets are going to need contribution from Canning this year and while he is not flashy, he could be a serviceable starter.

Kyle Teel, C, Chicago White Sox

Real deal Kyle Teel continues to look the part this spring. On Monday, Teel collected three hits, including a home run and double. Im not going to sit here and say I think Teel makes the big league club out of camp, but hes the best catcher in the White Sox organization and i’m not sure its close right now.

We are looking at just 15 plate appearances of Spring Training data, but Teel has two home runs and a .333/.467/.917 slash. On the backfields, he has been incredibly impressive which includes this bomb off of Roki Sasaki that Aram Leighton caught on camera.

The power is average, and while Teel is not likely to be a huge home run threat, he could be a consistent 15-home run bat in the majors. He topped out at 110 mph but ran a 90th-percentile exit velocity around 102 mph.

Being a strong athlete behind the plate, Teel has quick pop times that have ranged from 1.8-1.9 seconds. However, he only threw out 20 percent of runners in 2024. He is a great game-caller and should be the White Sox's future catcher for a long time.