Story by
Gavin Lux 'shrunk' 3 inches since leaving Reds for Rays
- Story by
- Gavin Lux 'shrunk' 3 inches since leaving Reds for Rays
Gavin Lux 'shrunk' 3 inches since leaving Reds for Rays originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
Gavin Lux did some shrinking during the offseason.
Advertisement
Well, at least that's how the official listings spell it out. Lux is three inches shorter for the 2026 season with the Tampa Bay Rays than he was when he left the Cincinnati Reds .
Is he really, though?
Probably not. This is about how MLB is measuring heights going forward.
Because of the ABS challenge system, which sets a strike zone based on a given player's height, the heights need to be accurate.
Lux was listed as 6-foot-2 with the Reds.
He's now listed at 5-foot-11.
MORE: Cubs' Daniel Palencia completes improbable rise for Venezuela
"We're going to see a lot of height changes this year because, with the rollout of ABS, MLB is now measuring each player's height down to the millimeter," Joe Pompliano wrote on X . "The process is super strict — no shoes, no hats, knees exposed, back against the wall — and to account for potential shrinkage throughout the day, MLB is even requiring all its teams to take measurements between 10 am and 12 pm local time on their appointed day."
Advertisement
It's hard to understand the ramifications of this exactly, but it has brought to light some players who were really exaggerating on their heights.
Lux, apparently, was one of those guys. Now though, he'll hopefully have the computers giving him a slightly more accurate strike zone.
The irony of Lux's height change is that fans are already hopping in the comments insisting that he isn't even 5-foot-11. So who knows?
All we know is he lost three inches on his official height. But it's baseball, where height probably matters less than any other sport, so Lux should be just fine, no matter how tall he actually is.
Advertisement
