Leo Morgenstern

2 days ago | yardbarker.com | Leo Morgenstern

On April 16, 2025, I wrote down an idea for a headline in my iPhone notes app: “This is the new Jeremy Peña. You haven’t met him yet.”It was three weeks into the season, and Peña was hitting .215 with a .682 OPS and a 91 wRC+. However, his xwOBA was almost 100 points higher than his wOBA. Indeed, his .393 xwOBA put him among the top 20 qualified hitters in the American League. Powering that xwOBA was a hard-hit rate over 50%. In each of Peña’s first three seasons, that figure sat in the thirties.

3 days ago | justbaseball.com | Leo Morgenstern

Entering Jac Caglianone’s MLB debut, the Kansas City Royals sat 28th in MLB in runs per game. They also found themselves among the bottom five clubs in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, wOBA, OPS, and wRC+. Their 34 home runs ranked last. Meanwhile, the organization’s top prospect was absolutely raking in the minor leagues. Through 38 games at Double-A, Caglianone slashed .322/.394/.553 with nine home runs and a 157 wRC+.

4 days ago | justbaseball.com | Leo Morgenstern

Another month of the 2025 Major League Baseball season is in the books. As hard as it is to believe, the season is already more than one-third of the way through. After April, Just Baseball named Fernando Tatis Jr., Corbin Carroll, and Pete Alonso our NL position players of the month, while Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Nick Pivetta, and Kodai Senga took home the honors on the pitching side. Carson Kelly and Jesús Luzardo also earned honorable mentions for their strong starts.

1 week ago | blogs.fangraphs.com | Leo Morgenstern

No team has been caught stealing more than the Royals this year. As hard as it might be to believe, their 20 thwarted stolen base attempts are the most in the league. Their 70.1% stolen base success rate ranks 27th, as do their -2.1 weighted stolen base runs (wSB). This stands in stark contrast to what many think of as the Royals’ brand of baseball.

2 weeks ago | justbaseball.com | Leo Morgenstern

Robbie Ray is thriving. The veteran lefty is 6-0 with 62 strikeouts, a 2.67 ERA, and a 3.21 xERA through his first 10 starts. The San Francisco Giants have won nine of those outings. No NL starter has helped his team to more wins. But let’s back up for a moment. Ray arrived in the Bay Area during the 2023-24 offseason. After winning the AL Cy Young with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021, he signed a five-year, $115 million contract with the Seattle Mariners.