Gosh, isn’t Jorge Polanco cold by now?! Though he has gone from the middle of the country to the West coast and now the East coast, he has somehow managed to remain North. Polanco signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets last Tuesday after his highest PA total since 2021 and highest ever wRC+. Regardless of whether you think the Mets are buying high here, let’s dive into the park factors to see how the move from Seattle’s home park, T-Mobile Park, to Citi Field might impact his results.

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You’ve no doubt heard by now that last Thursday, Pete Alonso signed a five-year, $155 million contract with the Orioles. That’s going to annoy those still rooting for Coby Mayo, but is obviously a big move for the team. It’s hard to picture the lifelong Met donning a different uniform, but we’re going to get used to it eventually. For now, let’s consult the park factors to find out how the move from New York’s Citi Field to Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards might impact his results.

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It’s no secret that Jordan Walker has been a disappointment offensively since a solid debut back in 2023. He was formerly ranked as the Cardinals best prospect and the 11th best prospect in the game just a couple of years ago. With 55/80 Game Power and 70/80 Raw Power grades, he was an intriguing future fantasy contributor. Unfortunately, his performance has gone South, wayyyyyy South, since that rookie campaign. Acknowledging that something needed to be done to return to his former top prospect path, he visited Driveline Baseball back in October in order to overhaul his swing mechanics. We’ve seen a number of Driveline Baseball success stories. Will Walker be the next?

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Just before Thanksgiving, the Blue Jays signed Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210 million contract. He now returns to the American League, where he spent five seasons with the White Sox before joining the Padres for two seasons. Coming off the second worst ERA over a full season in his career, how might his new park affect his results? Let’s consult the park factors to find out.

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Last Tuesday, the Red Sox acquired Sonny Gray from the Cardinals, allowing him to don his sixth uniform in 10 seasons. It’s pretty surprising to see a guy with a career ERA- of 87 to be constantly packing his bags to join a new team, but perhaps the positive spin is that so many organizations want him! After spending two seasons calling Busch Stadium home, let’s dive into the park factors to find out how the move to Fenway Park might impacts his results.

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A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the early starting pitcher Stuff+ risers and fallers. Unfortunately, comparing 2025 Stuff+ to 2024 Stuff+ meant that I was missing a whole group of potentially interesting pitchers to evaluate — both injury returnees and rookies. So I dedicated a post to reviewing these two groups’ Stuff+, but without any comparisons to the previous season. Let’s find out how they finished the season.

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In late April, after about a month of the season was in the books, I compared starting pitcher Stuff+ grades to their marks from the 2024 season, identifying the risers and fallers. Just like with any other metric, could pitcher go on a stuff hot streak or suffer through a slump? Or does such changes early on tend to stick? Let’s review the names to see how they finished the season in both Stuff+ and strikeout rate, which correlates strongly with the former.

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The preseason and early season reviews continue! Today, I’m going to review the early starting pitcher velocity changes to find out if the gainers held onto their gains and if the decliners suffered their losses all year. Since we know that fastball velocity positively correlates with strikeout rate, I’ve included the change from 2024 to 2025 as well to see if both moved in the same direction.

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At the beginning of April, I took a super early look at hitter maxEV gainers. Obviously, a hitter had all season to record that maximum exit velocity, so a lower maxEV than the previous year at the time was not a cause for concern. However, if a hitter had already posted a meaningfully higher maxEV than the previous season, did that turn out to be an early indicator of a power breakout? Let’s review the names and find out.

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At the end of March, I dove into the hitter average bat speed risers and fallers. I realized afterward that although the metric stabilizes rather quickly, it was still simply too early to conclude anything. So I then discussed risers and fallers again with two posts back-to-back in mid-May. Let’s find out if these hitters maintained their mid-May levels, and if so, if it impacted their performance in the same direction as the bat speed change.

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