Modern MLB Players Are Better Than Past Players—Here Are 5 Reasons Why
Image credit: Paul Skenes (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)
Major League Baseball players in 2025 are the best the game has ever seen.
Depending on your viewpoint, that’s either an obvious statement, blasphemy or somewhere in between.
I’m not trying to argue that the baseball of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s or 2000s was a worse game to watch—that’s not what this story will cover. But I am saying that today’s players are better. They are, on average, bigger, stronger, faster and more skilled.
If you dig into what’s actually happening on the field, it’s hard not to appreciate how much better and better players have to be just to survive in MLB of the 2020s.
All data below use MLB’s Statcast numbers as gathered by Baseball Savant. Since 2008, MLB has tracked every pitch, and since 2015, it’s also tracked hits and fielder movement. So we now have this vast repository of how the game has been played for 18 seasons. We know how hard pitchers threw, where the pitch was located, whether it was called a ball or strike and much more.
Here are five examples of how the skill level of players just keeps getting better and how the game is changing.
1. Pitchers Are Nastier Than Ever
OK. This is the easy one. This is the one you had to expect, but let’s start with it anyway.
Every year, pitchers throw harder than they did the year before. While we may wonder if pitchers will eventually reach a max level of velocity, that ceiling appears to have not been reached yet.
Fastball velocity just keeps climbing. Four-seam fastball velocity has climbed by more than two mph since 2008. Sinkers have seen a three mph increase, while sliders and changeups have seen similar gains. And before you ask: Yes, this is all normalized to the same scale. The data can’t be explained away by changes in radar guns or other measurement technology. Pitches from 2008 and 2025 are being measured the same way, right out of the pitcher’s hand.
This steady increase of velocity year after year means that, over the course of a decade, what was once considered to be average becomes well below-average, and what was above-average becomes average. In 2008-10, lefthanded starters sat below 91 mph with their four-seamers. Now, they are averaging 93 mph. In 2008, that 93 mph average was where righthanded relievers sat. Now, you have to throw above 95 mph as a righthanded reliever to have average velocity.
In 2008, a full 3.1% of all pitches (21,933) were fastballs thrown 85 mph or softer. Last year, only 0.6% of pitches (4,609) were sub-85 mph fastballs. There are nearly as many 100+ mph fastballs thrown every month as there were thrown in the entire season during the 2008-09 time frame.
If you decry the decline of batting average and balls in play, this is somewhat to blame. In 2008, there were 1,493 hits on 85 mph or softer fastballs, as hitters slashed .291/.352/.454 against this well below-average velocity.
Last year, hitters hit .305/.363/.544 against those 85 mph or softer fastballs, but they only got 246 hits off of them, because there were so many fewer of those pitches thrown.
Hitters have had to adapt. There were fewer than 20 hits on 101+ mph fastballs in any season up to 2015. Last year, there were 64 hits on 101+ mph, but a lot of that was because of increased exposure. In 2011, there were 187 pitches of 101+. Last year there were 1,286. There were more pitches of 102+ mph last season than there were in 2008-2013 combined.
But pitchers have gotten nastier in other ways, as well. Over the past 18 seasons, fastball usage has steadily declined. Whereas hitters used to be able to try to get to fastball counts and then attack a pitcher, now they are seeing 8% fewer fastballs than they were in 2008-15. Those fastballs have been replaced by increases in breaking balls and offspeed pitches.
So pitchers are throwing harder, but they also are harder to predict for hitters.
2. These Harder-Throwing Pitchers Also Throw More Strikes
I can hear some of you yelling at me right now.
To pre-emptively summarize your point: “Yes, these pitchers nowadays may throw harder, but it’s because baseball is breeding a generation of grunt-and-chuck-it throwers who lack the finesse, craft and pitching ability that old school pitchers used to have.”
It’s hard to fully define what separates pitchers from throwers, but can we agree that the ability to throw strikes is a pretty useful way to divide them? Well, when it comes to throwing strikes, pitchers are much better now than they were 10 or 15 years ago.
The strike rate in 2008 was 62.6%. It climbed above 63% in 2011, and it hasn’t dipped below that since. It topped 64% in 2014, and it’s largely hovered around that line for the past decade. Last year, the number was 64.4%, which is the best strike rate since Statcast data began. This year, it’s dipped back to 63.9%.
| Year | Strike PCT |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 62.6 |
| 2009 | 62.4 |
| 2010 | 62.8 |
| 2011 | 63.2 |
| 2012 | 63.5 |
| 2013 | 63.6 |
| 2014 | 64.0 |
| 2015 | 64.0 |
| 2016 | 63.6 |
| 2017 | 63.5 |
| 2018 | 63.7 |
| 2019 | 63.7 |
| 2020 | 63.0 |
| 2021 | 63.9 |
| 2022 | 64.2 |
| 2023 | 64.0 |
| 2024 | 64.4 |
| 2025 | 63.9 |
Now, those are all strikes, so if hitters are getting less selective and swinging at everything, that would be reflected in those numbers. But we can also look at where pitches are crossing the plate for every year since 2008. And today’s pitchers are in the strike zone or right at the edges of the zone more often now than they were 10, 15 or 18 years ago.
This is how Statcast data characterizes the pitch zones. There are pitches across the heart of the zone, which is what we would think of as the strike zone. Then there is the shadow zone, which is where pitchers love to live and where pitches may be called balls or strikes. There’s the chase zone, which is well off the zone but still an area where less-selective hitters may still swing. Lastly, there is the waste zone, which is where a pitcher is being non-competitive and throwing an almost automatic ball.
Pitchers threw 25.9% of pitches in the strike zone (heart of the zone) in 2008. It has steadily risen since then and this year, it’s at 27.5%, the best year we’ve seen. The percentage of pitches in the “shadow” zone at the edge of the strike zone has also increased slightly. It was 42.2% in 2008, this year it’s 42.9%. The number of pitches in the “chase zone” was 22.6% in 2008. It’s 21.7% now. The number of non-competitive waste pitches was 9.3% in 2008. It’s 7.9% now.
| Year | Heart | Shadow | Chase | Waste |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 25.88% | 42.21% | 22.59% | 9.32% |
| 2009 | 25.87% | 41.96% | 22.69% | 9.49% |
| 2010 | 25.47% | 42.22% | 22.88% | 9.44% |
| 2011 | 25.80% | 42.46% | 22.60% | 9.13% |
| 2012 | 25.97% | 42.48% | 22.58% | 8.97% |
| 2013 | 26.42% | 42.44% | 22.33% | 8.81% |
| 2014 | 25.98% | 42.65% | 22.51% | 8.85% |
| 2015 | 25.70% | 42.69% | 22.73% | 8.87% |
| 2016 | 25.85% | 42.66% | 22.59% | 8.90% |
| 2017 | 26.19% | 42.57% | 22.74% | 8.50% |
| 2018 | 26.15% | 42.73% | 22.46% | 8.66% |
| 2019 | 25.26% | 42.46% | 23.24% | 9.04% |
| 2020 | 25.42% | 42.27% | 23.00% | 9.31% |
| 2021 | 26.37% | 42.37% | 22.35% | 8.91% |
| 2022 | 26.00% | 42.84% | 22.62% | 8.54% |
| 2023 | 26.37% | 42.64% | 22.43% | 8.56% |
| 2024 | 26.63% | 42.85% | 22.14% | 8.37% |
| 2025 | 27.54% | 42.90% | 21.70% | 7.85% |
It could be argued that pitchers in the late 2000s had to nibble more because there were more soft-tossers who couldn’t get outs in the strike zone, while pitchers today have more ability to beat hitters in the zone. That may be true, but the fact remains that pitchers today are around and in the zone more than pitchers of a generation ago, and they’ve stopped throwing as many pitches that miss the zone by a large amount.
Digging deeper into this, the locations of breaking balls has stayed relatively static over the past 18 seasons, with roughly 25% of breaking balls being thrown in the zone, 40% being thrown in the shadow of the zone, 24% being thrown in the chase zone and 11-12% being thrown in the waste zone. The strike rate (including swings and balls in play) on breaking balls has remained at 61-62% for the entirety of the past 18 seasons.
But when it comes to fastballs, pitchers control them much better now than they did a generation ago. The strike rate on fastballs (including swings) has gone from 64% in 2008-10 to 65% from 2011-20 and 66% from 2021-25. It’s currently 66.33% this season. That’s slightly below last year’s 66.6%, which was the highest strike rate in the 18 seasons studied.
When it comes to location, the number of fastballs thrown in the zone has gone from 27% in 2008-10 to 31.6% this year. It’s increased steadily over the past 18 seasons. The rate of pitches in the shadow zone has also improved (from 43% in 2008-10 to 45% in 2022-25), while the number of fastballs in the chase zone and waste zones have decreased.
So, pitchers are throwing significantly harder than they were a generation ago, and they are locating their pitches more accurately while doing so.
3. Batters Are Hitting The Ball Harder
The rise of exit velocity for hitters is not as linear as the rise of pitching velocity, but it also is steadily increasing.
We only have 11 years of hit tracked data (2015-present). In 2015, the average exit velocity on swings (not bunts) was 88.2 mph. That number was topped only once over the next four seasons. But we are seeing hitters hit the ball harder. This year’s 89.5 mph average exit velocity is the highest we’ve seen in the hit-tracking era, as only one other year (2023) has seen even an 89.0 mph exit velocity.
The change in exit velocities on home runs is a bit more noticeable. In 2015, the average home run EV was 103.2 mph. This year, it’s 104.7 mph. That EV topped 104 mph for the first time in 2021, and it hasn’t dipped below 104 mph since.
Similarly, the hard-hit rate on balls (balls hit 95+ mph) has gone from 33.9% in 2015 to 41.2% in 2025. The hard-hit rate has gone up steadily over the past 11 years.
Why does that matter? Over the past 11 seasons, hitters are hitting .225/.223/.266 on balls hit under 95 mph. On balls hit 95+ mph, they hit .516/.511/1.028.
So while pitchers are both getting nastier and throwing more strikes, hitters are managing to hit the ball harder more consistently.
4. Players Are More Athletic
In addition to having pitchers who throw harder and hitters who hit the ball harder, baseball players are also faster. In 2015, the first year that MLB tracked sprint speed—the speed of a player in the fastest one-second window when they are running hard)—the median team averaged 26.9 ft/second. This year, the median sprint speed is 27.3 feet/second. Last year it was 27.4.
That may seem like a modest difference, but it’s actually relatively dramatic.The Astros were the fastest team in baseball in 2015, with an average sprint speed of 27.5 feet/second. This year, the Astros once again have a 27.5 feet/second sprint speed. They rank seventh. This year, the Diamondbacks’ average of 26.9 feet/second ranks as the fourth-slowest team in the majors. In 2015, that would have made them an average team for sprint speed.
| Year | Sprint Speed |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 26.92 |
| 2016 | 26.98 |
| 2017 | 27.11 |
| 2018 | 27.11 |
| 2019 | 27.11 |
| 2020 | 26.99 |
| 2021 | 27.17 |
| 2022 | 27.26 |
| 2023 | 27.35 |
| 2024 | 27.42 |
| 2025 | 27.25 |
5. Catchers Are Better
The rise of increased coaching of catchers by MLB organizations has seen backstops get better at doing the dirty work of catching. Framing has been a key point of emphasis for MLB clubs, but we’ll leave that alone today, other than to say that the difference between the best and worst framers has steadily decreased thanks to catchers and coaching staffs working to fix deficiencies.
Today, we’ll instead focus on some of the more “traditional” aspects of catching. When it comes to throwing out basestealers, for example, catchers are much better today than they were just a decade ago.
Scouts have long measured “pop times” to evaluate a catcher’s throwing ability. It measures a catcher from pop (when the ball hits the catcher’s mitt) to pop (when the ball hits the infielder’s glove at second base).
In 2015, only five catchers with five or more throws to second averaged a pop time of under 1.95 seconds, led by Christian Bethancourt’s 1.89-second pop. This year, 27 catchers with five or more throws have a sub-1.95 second pop time. The median pop time on a throw to second is 1.96 in 2025, it was 2.02 in 2015. This year, 52 of 69 qualified catchers have a sub-2.0-second average pop time. In 2015, only 21 of 73 catchers cracked the 2.0-second mark.
What’s changed? Catchers have improved their arm strength. The median velocity on a throw in 2015 was 81.8 mph. This year it’s 82.7 mph. But more than that, catchers have also improved the mechanics of their transfers. In 2015, the best exchange (from catch to release) was .61 seconds, and the median time on an exchange was 0.75. This year, the best exchange is .55 seconds, and the median time on an exchange is 0.65 seconds.
To take a couple of examples of veterans, J.T. Realmuto doesn’t throw as hard as he did in 2015, but his pop time has improved because he’s cut his exchange time from 0.75 seconds in 2015 and 0.70 seconds in 2016 to 0.65 in 2024 and 0.59 in 2025. Salvador Perez has lost more than five mph off his average throw comparing 2015 to 2025, but his pop time has remained the same because he has cut more than a tenth of a second off his exchange time.
From 2018-2025, MLB has also tracked the number of pitches that needed to be blocked by a catcher. That number consistently hovers around roughly 190,000 pitches a season. In 2018-2021, teams gave up 2,000-2,100 passed balls and wild pitchers per season. That number dipped below 1,700 in 2025 and it is on pace to be lower again this season. The rise of PitchCom communicators has surely helped with this, but even as pitchers are throwing harder, there are less pitches getting by catchers.
Conclusion
So, we have harder-throwing pitchers who throw more strikes facing harder-hitting hitters who also are faster than before. And we have catchers who are throwing harder while also using better mechanics.
Part of that is assuredly the steady increase in athleticism that is seen in virtually all sports. But there’s likely another factor at play as well. Because all of these aspects of the game are measured, teams and players can see weaknesses and improve them. A pitcher getting rocked at 93-94 mph may spend an offseason figuring out how to throw 95-96. A catcher who can’t throw out baserunners can work with a catching coach to improve his exchange. And now there is recorded data to check and verify whether the fixes are actually helping or not.
But another reality is also at play. What was good enough to make a player a successful big leaguer in 2010 isn’t enough to stick around in 2025.
To succeed players, have to keep getting better, because the next wave of players is unceasingly going to be throwing harder and hitting harder than the group before them. To just hang on, players can’t stand still, because the skill required keeps increasing.
