Ryan Kreidler spent five years chasing one thing in the majors: offense that would actually stick. This season, with the Twins, he’s finally getting it.
The 28-year-old shortstop said the breakthrough didn’t happen by accident. It started with those weekly 3½-hour offseason drives to a facility in North Los Angeles, where he worked under Brad Boyer, a former Twins minor leaguer. Kreidler was looking for a different approach, and he found one while hitting in a group that included Milwaukee Brewers star Christian Yelich and Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca.
“I’ve been searching for offensive success in the big leagues for five years,” Kreidler said. “It’s been the bane of my existence trying to figure it out.”
What changed, at least in part, was how his swing began to feel. Kreidler said he had spent the previous two seasons taking swings that never quite felt right, without the whip or the ball impact he wanted. StatCast shows his average bat speed has jumped from 68.5 mph in 2024 to 74.5 mph this season.
“I took a lot of swings the last two years that didn’t really feel that good,” said Kreidler, who has raised his average bat speed from 68.5 mph in 2024 to 74.5 mph this season, according to StatCast. “I just didn’t feel like I had whip.
I didn’t feel like I was impacting the ball I wanted to. I definitely wasn’t spinning it the way I normally do.”
That adjustment has helped turn Kreidler into one of the Twins’ main answers at shortstop. Through 52 games, he’s hitting .256 with five homers, 23 RBI, 21 runs and a .324 on-base percentage, even with a rough stretch this month that has left him with three hits in his last 28 at-bats.
His setup in the box is part of the story, too. Kreidler likes to stand tall and stay bouncy in his legs, a different look from a hitter like Juan Soto, who is more rooted into the ground with his lower half. He keeps his hands high, which gives him the feeling of swinging down at pitches.
Outside pitches have long given him trouble, Kreidler said, but he’s leaning more into the athleticism and bounce in his stance now. He has also started interlocking his fingers on the bat, almost like a golf grip, an idea first raised by Detroit Tigers hitting coach Michael Brdar last year.
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