The Dodgers’ latest win in the James Tibbs III story didn’t start with a trade deadline deal. It started years earlier, with a front office willing to bet on Driveline Baseball and the idea that player development could be built on data, technology and a different way of thinking about swings, contact and power.
That approach has become so common now that it’s no longer a true edge. The Boston Red Sox are in that world too, having contracted with Driveline in January 2024.
They reached the postseason last October for the first time since 2021 and are on pace to get back there again this year. But the same modern methods that can help some players also expose others to a bad fit, and Tibbs is the latest example.
The Dodgers ended up with Tibbs in the Dustin May trade at the 2025 deadline, and the early returns have been loud. In Boston, he hit .207 in 30 games.
In Triple-A Oklahoma City, he’s been far more dangerous, slashing .293/.415/.543 with 28 home runs and 98 RBIs through Friday. While Dodgers fans have been waiting for his promotion, the Red Sox side of the deal has been left wondering how quickly they moved on.
Julian McWilliams of CBSsports.com laid out the reason in a new report, pointing to a development plan in Boston that pushed Tibbs toward a swing path he didn’t need. McWilliams wrote, "Back in Boston's organization, the need to swing faster and pull the ball had trickled down to hitters who already possessed those traits," McWilliams wrote.
"Take James Tibbs III. Tibbs, who came to Boston from San Francisco as part of the Rafael Devers trade last summer, immediately joined the organization's Double-A affiliate.
Once he got into Boston's system, the team shifted his focus to just pulling the ball.
"But there was a problem: Tibbs was already a pull hitter with exceptional bat speed."
According to McWilliams, the Dodgers took a different route. They had Tibbs stop using the weighted bats he had been swinging in practice, believing those were creating too much swing and miss. From there, they steered him toward using the whole field instead of selling out for pull-side damage.
"With the Red Sox, the emphasis involved increasing his exit velocity, but his swing became too rotational. As a result, he was pulling off the ball and wasn't making consistent enough contact. Using the whole field allowed him to stay inside the ball longer while still being able to turn on pitches when he needed to."
Tibbs’ path is a reminder that the analytics debate in baseball is rarely as simple as pro or anti. The Dodgers kept sending pitchers and hitters to Driveline after their first experiment in 2016, but the key here is how they used those tools compared with Boston. In this case, that difference may have helped turn Tibbs into a prospect who looks ready for the majors now - perhaps even more ready than the $60 million veteran holding down right field at Dodger Stadium.
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