Brett Bateman has already given the Blue Jays a little bit of everything - except a home run.
The 24-year-old rookie came within a swing of the cycle in Friday’s 3-1 loss to the New York Yankees, piecing together a single, double and triple while Toronto’s offense mostly disappeared around him. He kept rolling on Saturday, adding two more hits and a walk in a 4-3 win. Through his first 15 major league games, Bateman was hitting .321 with a .367 on-base percentage entering Sunday’s series finale.
The one number that still jumps off the page is the zero in the home run column. Bateman has gone 58 big league at-bats without leaving the yard, and that might tempt some evaluators to zoom in on what he doesn’t do. But Toronto did not bring him in for tape-measure power.
The Blue Jays acquired Bateman from the Chicago Cubs along with Ty Southisene in the Kevin Gausman trade earlier this month. MLB Pipeline’s view at the time was pretty clear: Bateman is the kind of player who rarely drives the ball for power, but he makes contact and gets on base. Before his promotion, he had hit only six home runs in 317 minor league games.
Bateman sounded like he knew exactly what kind of player he was after his MLB debut.
“I try not to focus on the things that I’m not good at and focus on the things I’m really good at,” Bateman told MLB.com.
That approach fits a league that has become increasingly obsessed with power. Prospect evaluations now lean hard on exit velocity, launch angle and whether a hitter can lift the ball instead of pounding it into the ground. The home run, as MLB Pipeline put it, is “the most efficient event in sports” because one swing can change everything.
Still, not every player has to be built around the long ball. MLB Pipeline pointed to outliers like Chandler Simpson, and Bateman has started to look like the kind of player who can matter in other ways.
Statcast shows that in his limited major league action, Bateman has kept both his whiff and strikeout rates relatively low. He also brings real athletic tools, sitting in the 92nd percentile in sprint speed and the 95th percentile in arm strength.
It’s still early, and nobody knows exactly what Bateman will turn into. But his first few weeks have already shown a path to value that doesn’t depend on clearing fences.
If power shows up later, great. If it doesn’t, the contact, speed, defense and arm strength are enough to keep him relevant.
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Blue Jays Keep Winning The Hard Way As Pressure Builds
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John Schneider has already pointed to the issue in plain terms, noting the clubs struggles to cash in with runners in scoring position. That has turned a lineup with enough activity to matter into one that often has to wait for late-game hits to separate itself, and it leaves little margin when the pressure rises. The numbers are still good enough to keep Toronto in games, but the next step is turning all those opportunities into a little more breathing room. [Read more 🡒]