Via his Baseball Savant page, here are Schmitt's rankings for speed and arm strength (ignoring OAA because of sample size) in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
In 2.5 seasons, he went from being a rookie with nice speed and an elite arm, to a young player with dead average speed and a nice arm.
He's obviously taken some big steps offensively this season, but not a great trend for a young guy. Perhaps injury can explain his speed falling so drastically after 2 steady seasons, but what's with the steady drop in arm strength? Has this been written/talked about?
10 comments
He’s playing second base is my guess you don’t need to throw 88 miles an hour from second base
For the speed, it looks like he’s bulked up a lot. For the arm, like someone else said, you usually don’t chuck it as hard from second.
I’m just happy he seems to have figured out some plate/zone discipline. That’s what he needs to stick in the majors.
I appreciate your use of the description “nice”. Well done.
What everyone else said. He also had a nasty foul ball off his leg earlier this year. If it’s taking into account the full season, there was a time when he was not moving as well.
What a strange thing to be concerned about. His hitting matters way more to the team than his foot speed. We should be happy his xwOBA is up 37 points! And he’s playing second so of course he’s not throwing as hard.
If he threw 92 MPH seeds to first from second all the time Dom would punch him in the dick.
He’s playing second base, he doesn’t need to reach down and thrown bullets across the diamond
Not bad for an Aztec.