3 Reasons JP Crawford is the answer going forward for the Mariners at shortstop

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JP Crawford is hitting the ball WAY harder than ever before

Throughout his career, I think everyone could agree that Crawford was a soft-hitting shortstop. More of a slap the ball into play, find some gaps and get doubles when possible. Taking a look at his average exit velo and hard-hit rate, it's easy to see that it was 100% the case. Check his numbers out since 2019 when he came to Seattle, and you can see the outlier real fast.

Season	Average Exit Velocity	% Ranking Av Exit Velo	Hard Hit Rate	% Ranking Hard Hit Rate
2019	85.0 mph	3	24.8%	6
2020	85.8 mph	9	31.1%	15
2021	86.3 mph	8	30.6%	8
2022	85.1 mph	4	29.5%	5
2023	90.6 mph	68	37.0%	37

2023 is like watching a completely different hitter. Those first four years, Crawford was somewhere around 250th in the league on average for his exit velocity. So far in 2023, he is sitting T-82nd. That is such a massive increase, it's incredible. As you can see from the next two columns on the sheet, it's happening a lot as well. He's hitting the ball harder and he's doing it more often.

If this is real, it's going to make a big difference. It seems simple and straight-forward, but hitting the ball harder and doing it more often leads to more base hits. Could we finally be seeing glimpses of that top-5 prospect that was talked about pre-Philly call-up? A full cup from Crawford turns him into a great player, especially when you add in the defensive aspect of it.

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