How scrutinized Red Sox’ offensive approach aligns with Driveline (and Ted Williams)

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How scrutinized Red Sox’ offensive approach aligns with Driveline (and Ted Williams)

Christopher Smith · MassLive

Wed, Feb 11, 2026 ·

2 min read

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KENT, Wash. — A Ted Williams quote hangs above the batting cages at the Red Sox ' JetBlue Park spring training complex:

"We're going to learn how to do two things ... We're going to hit it hard and we're going to hit it in the air."

The Red Sox want their hitters to know Williams' approach is still relevant and critical today. The organization has adopted many methods from Driveline Baseball, a data-driven baseball player development organization , that have helped their players become better at hitting the ball hard in the air.

"We do prioritize what Ted Williams prioritized first, which is hit the ball in the air and pull it," said Driveline founder Kyle Boddy, a special advisor to Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow . "That's the best thing. Data shows it. The Green Monster is there. And more importantly, it is what works. Now, do we not like the strikeouts? Sure. That's not great. That's a bad thing."

The Red Sox' hitting approach almost identically aligns with what Driveline teaches to its clients. Driveline focuses on bat speed, swing decisions and batted ball quality. The Red Sox practice four core areas, additionally focusing on swing characteristics.

The Red Sox' focus on those four began when former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom hired Jason Ochart from Driveline in November 2022 to be the organization's director of hitting development and program design.

"They actually take like a three-dimensional look at the swing," Boddy said. "'OK. Here's your swing, here's the arc of it. What's the impact? How long do we stay on plane with the pitch?'"

The approach has raised some questions though. With such importance being placed on increasing bat speed, hitting the ball hard in the air and batted ball quality metrics, are the Red Sox sacrificing contact? Are they putting less focus on situational hitting and ways to drive in runs without producing 100+ mph exit velocities?

During the 2024-25 seasons combined, the Red Sox scored 1,537 runs , sixth most of any team in the majors. But their 2,989 strikeouts were fourth most in Major League Baseball.

MLB strikeout leaders, 2024-25	Ks
Rockies	3,148
Mariners	3,071
Angels	3,043
Red Sox	2,989

During those two seasons, Boston was:

tied for the fifth-highest strikeout percentage ( 24.1% ).
tied for the fourth-highest whiff percentage ( 27.1%) .
third in swings and misses ( 6,343 ).
second in most swings and misses ( 349 ) with a runner at third and fewer than two outs.
tied for seventh in strikeout percentage ( 22.1% ) with a runner at third and fewer than two outs.

"You could zoom out and look at a top 10 offense in terms of wOBA (weighted on-base average) and runs and OPS and those types of metrics," Breslow said. "You can also say we struck out far and away more than anybody else with runners in scoring position. And we had opportunities to cash runs in and we didn't do that."

There is the concern among some traditional scouts that today's hitters spend significant time in the batting cage looking at advanced stats such as launch angle and exit velocity between swings. They think that leads to training a certain way (known as "laboratory baseball") and not knowing how to come through in situational hitting spots, said an American League scout speaking on the condition of anonymity.

There's also a concern that players are no longer incentivized to shorten up and hit the ball the other way when the situation calls for it.

"Hitters are trained this way that exit velocity, launch angle are so important, and that's how they're essentially evaluated by their club, by other clubs, by the industry," the AL scout said. "You can see how shortening up and doing what the game should require may not be ideal for them. And they may say, 'Screw it.'"

Breslow agreed that hitters training a certain way now might make them less prepared for situational hitting.

"There's probably some truth to that. Though I would also say that shortening up to put a ball in play in batting practice is very different than shortening up to put a ball in play when you are facing someone's best swing-and-miss pitch in an 0-2, 1-2 count," Breslow said.

Breslow said it's important to take a holistic view of why an at-bat with a runner in scoring position and fewer than two outs ends in a strikeout.

"Oftentimes it's not swinging at a very hittable pitch 0-0, 1-0, 2-0," Breslow said. "That may be what dictates the outcome of an event. So we need to make sure that we're not just solving for what happens when you get to two strikes."

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who first worked as a GM in 1988 with the Montreal Expos, said there's probably not as much emphasis on two-strike approach these days, although it's "extremely important" to Philadelphia .

"It's more difficult to do than it used to be because of pitching itself," Dombrowski said.

Velo, spin leading to more strikeouts

While Williams focused on hitting the ball hard in the air to the pull side, he did not sacrifice contact for power. He struck out just 709 times over 19 seasons (2,292 games), recording an incredible 7.2% strikeout percentage.

But the game was very different back then. MLB hitters combined for just a 10.2% strikeout percentage in 1946, when Williams won his first of two AL MVP awards.

Fastball velocity and breaking ball spin are nastier than ever, leading to more strikeouts. The league average for fastball velocity (both four-seamers and two-seamers) in 2025 was 94.3 mph , the highest of any season in MLB history. The league average was 91.4 mph in 2008.

Spin rate, meanwhile, began being tracked a decade ago. During that time, the league average revolutions per minute on breaking balls has increased from 2,193 in 2015 to 2,512 in 2025. As MLB.com explained , more spin changes a pitch's trajectory. It noted that a fastball with higher spin rises more than a fastball at the same speed but with less spin and curveballs typically have more break when the spin is higher.

"Contact is easier said than done," Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said.

Dombrowski said the spot in the game and the batter at the plate might dictate the approach.

"You still want to get a bigger rally if you can," Dombrowski said. "Now if it's a tie game, bottom of the ninth (that's different)."

Boddy said he knows putting the ball in play in situations with a runner at third base and fewer than two outs is incredibly important to both Red Sox manager Alex Cora and hitting coach Pete Fatse.

Cora frequently says that good things happen when a hitter puts the ball in play. That's especially true at Fenway Park, which had the third-highest batting average on balls in play (.305) among MLB venues in 2025, behind only the Rockies' Coors Field (.336) and Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park (.306). Fenway is the venue with the second-highest batting average on balls in play (.316 ) dating back to 2008, trailing only Coors Field (.329).

It makes sense for the Red Sox to put together a balanced lineup of players that put the ball in play and hit for power. As Breslow said, personnel obviously is a factor. Breslow thinks new third baseman/second baseman Caleb Durbin — who Boston acquired from the Brewers in a six-player trade Monday — should help in this area.

"You think about the deficiencies that our team had last year in terms of putting the ball in play, not expanding the strike zone, catching up to fastballs, those are all things that he excels at," Breslow said.

In 2025, Durbin finished in the 98th percentile in strikeout percentage (9.9%) and the 96th percentile in whiff percentage (13.0%).

Cora said the Red Sox offense "can be better" this year after there were a lot of opportunities where the lineup failed to cash in with runners on base last season.

"It's not that all of a sudden we're gonna choke up and put the ball in play, but there's gonna be a mindset and it will start here," Cora said Monday at JetBlue Park. "That situational hitting is very important, especially with the pitching staff that we have and hopefully with the defense that we think we're gonna have. So you don't have to score seven all the time."

Putting the ball in play more isn't something the Red Sox just decided is important.

"Cora, whose career is defined as one of the most professional hitters I think of his time, he's very attuned to it," Boddy said. "We're trying to make changes, for sure."

Boddy made that statement in June and progress was made after that. The Red Sox had the third most whiffs ( 2,143 ) after the first four months, then the eighth fewest ( 905 ) during the final two months of the 2025 season.

2025 Red Sox' improvement	K% (MLB rank)	Whiff% (MLB rank)	Total whiffs (MLB rank)
March-July 2025	23.6% (27th)	26.8% (27th)	2,143 (28th)
August/Sept. 2025	21.4% (8th)	24.9% (10th)	905 (8th)

The Sox had an 18.7% strikeout percentage with a runner at third base and fewer than two outs during the final two months, down from 21.3% in the first four months.

But Breslow emphasized that for 2026, making contact, especially with runners in scoring position and fewer than two outs, is still an area where the Red Sox need to improve.

"Sometimes it's what happens before you get to two strikes that dictates what happens once you're there," Breslow said. "I think the other is just ensuring that our players understand the value of driving in runs and cashing them in when they're available."

Breslow stressed Red Sox hitters having a clear approach before the count gets to two strikes.

"And once they're in two-strike counts, that we're prioritizing the right things at the right time," Breslow said.

Red Sox senior director of player development Brian Abraham said the ability to manipulate the barrel and hit the ball to the opposite field to move a runner over matters to the Red Sox. Hitting the ball hard in the air does, too.

"If you take the majority of at-bats and kind of put them all together, I think generally speaking, pulling the ball in the air hard is a thing that leads to extra-base hits, which ultimately leads to runs, which ultimately leads to wins," Abraham said.

Abraham added that it's data-driven and evidence-based.

A ball batted in the air at a certain degree and speed tends to lead to more extra-base hits than a ball hit at lower speed and at a suboptimal angle.

The Red Sox scoring the sixth most runs in MLB the past two seasons combined supports the approach. Boston also had the fifth-best slugging percentage ( .422 ) and sixth-best weighted on-base average (.322) in 2024-25 combined.

"All those things matter," Abraham said. "Bat speed matters, but it only matters if you swing at the right pitches. It only matters if you hit the ball. But some of these things do raise the floor of a player and give them more opportunity for more room for error."

The thought among the data-driven analysts is that a hitter might not square up a ball in a certain at-bat, but above-average bat speed might still lead to a hit, creating room for error.

Missing naturally happens more often when emphasizing swinging hard and hitting a ball at a certain angle to drive it in the air.

"Do I think there's something to chasing exit velocity and losing some feel for the barrel and contact ability?" Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen said. "Yes. I do. There's a trade-off."

An upswing can leave hitters susceptible to fastballs up in the zone.

"Nothing's free," Boddy said. "You've got to give something to get something."

What Red Sox are teaching hitters

Kristian Campbell was known for his elite contact rate when Boston drafted him in the fourth round in 2023. He posted a 90% overall contact rate and a 94% in-zone contact rate in his final year at Georgia Tech, according to Baseball America . The Red Sox wanted Campbell to hit the ball in the air more often while also increasing his bat speed and asked him to trade some contact to hit for more power. He did that in 2024, enjoying a breakout minor league season.

The 2025 season wasn't as kind to Campbell. He began the year as Boston's starting second baseman and won American League Rookie of the Month for April . But he began to struggle in May. Boston optioned him to Triple-A Worcester on June 20 and he spent the rest of the season with the WooSox.

A few days before Campbell's demotion, Boddy pointed out that some top hitters, "even Mike Trout and Justin Upton and (other) guys that came up early still struggled their first year."

Boddy said the talent gap between Triple A and the major leagues is "bigger than it's ever been."

"That gap is so large that when you call up someone like Kristian and Roman (Anthony), who already does have swing-and-miss tendencies ... they're going to swing and miss in the big leagues a lot because the game's hard," Boddy said. "And over time it goes down."

Rookies had a 24.0% strikeout percentage in 2025, compared to the league average of 22.2%.

"Their strikeout rate is highest when they're young, and their damage is typically high, too," Boddy said. "They hit for a ton of power and then their bat speed goes down over time, but their contact rate goes up over time."

The 2025 American League champion Toronto Blue Jays backed up Boddy's assertion that the best teams make a lot of contact, showing there's still more to hitting than launch angles and exit velocities. Balance is ideal and that's what the Red Sox are trying to achieve.

In 2025, the Jays found that balance and improved drastically at putting balls in play under first-year hitting coach David Popkins and senior hitting biomechanist Ben Jones, who both have ties to Driveline.

The 2025 Blue Jays had MLB's lowest strikeout percentage (17.8% ) and whiff percentage (21.6%). Toronto put the ball in play 4,488 times, 291 more times than Boston did.

"I'm sure there's a lot of those hits that ... on data would be looked at as a negative result," an AL scout said. "But it helps them win games. ... That's where sort of the gamesmanship and the data-driven methods are sort of at odds."

The 2025 Blue Jays had 588 fewer swings and misses than the 2025 Red Sox, who finished with the fifth most ( 3,048 ) in the majors.

Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said the Blue Jays organization "has been attracted to contact" for a long time.

"It's about winning baseball games," Atkins said. "Regardless of how hard or far you're trying to hit a ball, you have to hit it for it to go far."

Toronto added another player this offseason with power who puts the ball in play when it signed Japanese infielder Kazuma Okamoto . He hit 248 homers and posted a 17.7% strikeout percentage in 11 years in Nippon Professional Baseball.

The Jays had the lowest strikeout percentage ( 14.9% ) in 2025 with a runner at third base and fewer than two outs. The World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers , meanwhile, were tied for the fourth-lowest strikeout percentage (17.3%) in those situations.

Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes said that they constantly preach the importance of being "a good hitter first."

"That encompasses a lot of different things, but most specifically, 'OK, situational awareness. What do I do to help my team win? Do I need to shoot a line drive the other way?'" Gomes said. "Obviously we understand that hitting the ball hard at good angles is a helpful thing in being a productive hitter, but that doesn't always equate to wins. So I think it's trying to marry all of these things as best as possible to create the most well-rounded players."

Bat speed is something hitters, coaches and analytics departments have paid attention to more in recent years. And although traditionalists understand bat speed is important, they question whether analytics departments are placing too much emphasis on it.

Mookie Betts , for example, ranked in the 38th percentile among major league hitters in bat speed (71.3 mph) in 2023, when he finished second in the NL MVP voting. He was in the 13th percentile in bat speed (69.0 mph) in 2024 when he finished 13th for the NL MVP and won his third straight Silver Slugger award.

"I'm not saying bat speed is bad, but with a runner on third and less than two outs, who would you as a pitcher rather face: Giancarlo Stanton or Steven Kwan ?" the AL scout asked. "Any pitcher would rather face Giancarlo Stanton. None of that means anything at that point. It's about competing and touching the ball and getting the job done."

Kwan ranked in the first percentile in bat speed (63.7 mph) this past season but he was in the 100th percentile in whiff percentage (8.7%) and 99th percentile in strikeout percentage (8.7%).

Luis Arráez has batted .319 over the past three seasons. He's been in the first percentile in bat speed and the third percentile or below in hard-hit percentage during that stretch. He squares balls up, gets hits and hardly strikes out. He also wasn't extended a $22.025 million qualifying offer from the Padres this offseason. The 28-year-old ended up signing a one-year, $12 million contract with the Giants on Jan. 31.

That brings up an important question: Are the traditionalists right? Is the industry too focused on exit velocities, bat speed and hard-hit percentage while undervaluing pure hitters that don't generate top batted ball quality metrics?

"Contact ability, ability to get on base, see pitches, grind at-bats, none of that comes with exit velocity," Hazen said. "So I'm sure that there's some undervaluedness to that. It's probably easier for us to see objective exit velocity from an evaluation standpoint."

But Hazen added, "(Geraldo) Perdomo is a great example for us. He doesn't hit the ball very hard. He's one of the best players in baseball."

Perdomo was in the seventh percentile in bat speed (68.3 mph) and 11th percentile in hard hit percentage (31.9%) in 2025, but he did a good job of squaring balls up and he had more walks than strikeouts. He ranked near the top of the league in walk rate, strikeout rate, chase percentage and whiff percentage. He also hit for power (58 extra-base hits) even though his expected slugging percentage (.424) was around the league average.

Gomes said it's so challenging for pitchers to navigate an at-bat against the high-contact and low strikeout-percentage hitters who are able to manipulate the barrel.

"So I think when you're talking about that level of bat-to-ball, that level of skill, like the exit velos, all of that, kind of just throw those out the window. They're just not that indicative of the value," Gomes said.

Importance of hitting for more power

While the Red Sox put more balls in play as the 2025 season progressed, their power decreased. That's not surprising after trading Rafael Devers on June 15 , then losing both Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu to lengthy IL stints late in the season. Alex Bregman , meanwhile, didn't hit for the same power after his return from the IL right before the All-Star break. Bregman — who has never had top average exit velocities but creates backspin — slugged .553 before suffering a right quad strain and .386 after his return from the IL.

Bregman	Games/plate appearances	HR	SLG
Before IL	51/226	11	.553
After IL	63/269	7	.386

The 2025 Red Sox had the ninth-most home runs (137) in the majors during the first four months. They had 49 home runs during August and September, the third fewest.

The Red Sox also were 17th in slugging percentage (.399 ) during the final two months after slugging .432 (fifth best in baseball) during the first four months.

Breslow knows his club not only needs to improve in situations with runners in scoring position, but it also needs to slug more. The Red Sox acquired right-handed hitter Willson Contreras from the Cardinals in December and he's expected to bat cleanup .

That said, the Red Sox didn't seriously pursue the two top power hitters, Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber , on the 2025-26 free agent market.

Cora said during Boston's final road trip in Toronto that it's difficult to string together three straight hits against elite pitching nowadays, so teams need home run power in the lineup.

"I don't want to get so anchored to this idea that the only way to score runs is home runs," Breslow said back in November. "We showed that isn't the case. That said, a disproportionate number of runs are scored in the postseason via the home run. And that's not something that we can ignore."

Three months later, Breslow said he's confident that there will be power that emerges from the current roster. He said a fully health season out of Anthony should help. He also pointed to Contreras and Abreu being important sources of power. Cora identified Abreu, who had 22 homers in 115 games last year, as a "game-changer" when he's healthy and in the lineup .

Breslow also thinks Durbin can hit for some pull-side power at Fenway Park. Durbin ranked in the 95th percentile in squared-up percentage (33.3%) last season when he finished third for the NL Rookie of the Year.

"He's a good fit for our park just given kind of the profile of hitting the ball in the air to the pull side," Breslow said. "I think it was like a 20% air pull metric last year. I feel like that will play well at Fenway."

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