David Frerker-Imagn Pictures
If Pull Skubal locates his fastball up within the zone, opposing hitters are in all probability cooked. Practically half the time they swing, they arrive up empty. In the event that they handle to place it in play, they’re unlikely to do a lot harm — of the six hits he’s allowed on elevated heaters, 5 have been singles. That lone extra-base hit? An absolute tank! A 429-foot house run, off a superbly executed 98-mph heater on the primary pitch of the sport, courtesy of 1 Zach Netowho’s at the moment making a case for low-level stardom.
After a tough rookie marketing campaign in 2023, Neto broke out in his sophomore effort, posting 3.5 WAR by taking part in a reliable shortshop and clubbing sufficient house runs (23) to cowl up his mediocre on-base capability. Even after lacking the primary few weeks of this season with a bum shoulder, the 24-year-old has managed to take one other step ahead in 2025: His 139 wRC+ ranks second amongst all shortstops with not less than 150 plate appearances.
That improved line is fueled by an influence surge. In simply 37 video games, he’s homered 9 instances and hit 10 doubles. The barrel charge has actually doubled, leaping from an 8.4% charge final 12 months to 16.8%. Because of this, his .589 anticipated slugging (xSLG) ranks eighth in baseball, slightly below big-time sluggers like Aaron Decide, Shohei Ohtaniand Kyle Schwarber.
These three guys are exhausting swingers, perennially topping the bat pace leaderboards. However Neto doesn’t match that profile. He stands at a slender 5-foot-11; even with a slight uptick in bat pace year-over-year, his 71.7-mph common swing pace falls under the large league common. The Angels shortstop isn’t posting elite energy numbers as a result of he’s swinging the bat exhausting. It’s as a result of he’s maxing out the aggression in his strategy, promoting out for energy and principally succeeding.
To grasp Neto’s strategy, it requires a tour into the brand new stats dropped by the beneficent of us on the Statcast manufacturing unit. The primary rollout centered round batting stance informationmeasuring the vertical and horizontal location of the place a hitter stands within the batter’s field and the typical “intercept level,” or the place the hitter makes contact with the ball relative to the plate and their middle of mass. The second rollout featured statistics about bat pathmost notably the swing path tilt — the angle of the swing within the 40 milliseconds earlier than contact — and the assault angle, which is the angle of the bat relative to the ball at contact.
The batting stance metrics present Neto creeping nearer to the pitcher with every passing 12 months. In his stance, the middle of his physique is nineteen inches again within the field, three inches nearer to the pitcher than the place he stood in 2024 and general the ninth-shallowest setup of 252 certified hitters. You’ll be able to see his entrance foot is about as near the entrance of the field as potential:
As is obvious from that video body, he additionally crowds the plate. He stands simply 22 inches away from the plate’s middle, rating fourth amongst these 252 hitters. This proclivity for standing on the inside fringe of the field will not be new; his distance from the plate is just about unchanged over the course of his profession, and doubtless contributed to his 16 hit-by-pitches in each 2023 and 2024. (Surprisingly, he’s solely been hit twice this 12 months.)
By the only potential measurement of stance aggressiveness — including up the depth within the field and the gap from the plate — Neto ranks second in all of baseball, behind solely Xavier Edwards.
This mix of scooching up within the field and crowding the plate permits gamers like Eugenio Suárez, Anthony Santander, Xander Bogaertsand Neto to assault all types of pitches out in entrance, making it simpler for them to faucet into their pull-side energy. (The plate crowding additionally has the advantage of discouraging pitchers from attacking their weak point inside for worry of placing them on base with an HBP.) Neto’s common intercept level is 16 inches in entrance of the plate, 5 inches farther out than it was in 2024 and trailing solely Bogaerts and Suárez amongst all hitters within the pattern.
The opposite think about Neto’s energy surge is his swing tilt, which elevated from 33 levels in 2024 to 37 levels this season — solely Spencer Torkelson has added extra tilt in 2025 — and the result’s much more balls within the air. Due to his aggressive stance and lofty swing, Neto at the moment sits within the 93rd percentile in Statcast’s “pull air” share. Pull air balls are probably the most worthwhile of all balls in play, and Neto is rolling them up in bunches.
He’s not precisely doing it like Isaac Paredeswho units up just a little farther away from the plate so as to higher punish inside pitches. Conversely, as a result of Neto stands so near the plate, his favourite pitches to assault are usually center or away. The graphic above reveals all of Neto’s 2025 barrels — as you’ll be able to see, there are fewer barrels inside (the place he may be beat) and extra the place he can prolong his arms and elevate. Take a look at him crush this 3-1 slider on the periphery to left-center discipline:
Right here’s the ultimate piece of Neto’s breakout: When he’s swinging, he’s developing with flush contact. His charge of blasts on contact — outlined by Baseball Savant as exhausting swings the place the pitch is firmly squared-up — is within the 92nd percentile, up from a league-average mark in 2024. That barrel accuracy, not less than so far within the season, has allowed him to get probably the most out of his pure energy.
Apparently, Neto’s aggression doesn’t prolong to his swing choices. His general swing charge is among the many lowest within the league, significantly on pitches contained in the zone. Even his meatball swing charge — a hair over 60% — ranks 211th out of 220 hitters who’ve seen not less than 40 meatballs. But when there may be one place that Neto is looking pitches, it’s up and away.
When Esteban Rivera wrote about Neto’s swing path in June of final 12 months, he famous that Neto made an adjustment to higher assault these excessive fastballs, climbing his arms as much as get shorter to the ball. However to my eye, that adjustment has pale. Neto is now holding his arms decrease together with his elbows nearer to his physique. Try his setup at pitcher foot plant in 2024…
And in 2025…
Perhaps I’m squinting too exhausting, however to my eye, it looks like Neto has dropped his arms, tucked his elbow in, and angled his shoulder inward, creating that enhance in swing path tilt and due to this fact enabling him to interact launch mode. Keep in mind that homer off Skubal from the intro? Neto can flip over the barrel and elevate, even on premium velocity on the high of the zone.
These tweaks include some fairly clear trade-offs. The flip aspect of all this approach-based aggression mixed with passivity on pitches within the zone is a comparatively excessive strikeout charge. Neto is putting out extra — practically 30% of the time — whereas strolling even fewer instances than final season. Crowding the plate exposes him to inside pitches, and perching thus far up within the field offers him much less time to react. He’s significantly weak to up-and-in fastballs, although pitchers have but to reliably exploit that weak point. Pitching to that advantageous of a goal is actually troublesome as a result of the margin for error is small and the potential unfavorable penalties are fairly massive. If pitchers miss inside, they danger plunking Neto and awarding him first base; if their pitch leaks out over the plate, Neto is able to capitalize on the error. To date, he’s doing that.
Neto’s new strategy places a variety of strain on him to proceed hitting for energy to maintain offering worth, however I don’t suppose the extra-base hits are some type of small-sample mirage. It is smart that he’s slugging extra as a result of he’s made vital mechanical adjustments to do precisely that, and the elevated energy output is mirrored within the batted ball information. At a spindly 5-foot-11, he doesn’t look the a part of a slugger. However thanks to those new stats from Baseball Savant, we will perceive that slugging can imply extra than simply rotating the bat as shortly as potential.
