Daniel Schneemann was a feel good story in the making when he made his debut on June 2nd, 2024 at the age of 27 for the Cleveland Guardians. Schneemann was drafted by Cleveland in 2018, the 1003rd overall pick in Round 33 of the draft. He spent five full years in the Cleveland minor league system and was a part of the 2021 AA Akron RubberDucks Championship team. He wasn’t the highest touted prospect in the system, but his defense versatility was always valued by the organization. In his professional career, he has played at least one game in every position except catcher and pitcher. This versatility made him pivotal to the success of the 2024 Cleveland Guardians team when he was partnered with other utility players like Ángel Martínez and All-Star David Fry. Schneemann’s offense however, left some things to be desired.

In 2024 Schneemann kept a regular appearance in the lineup but did not contribute as much as would have been preferred. In 221 plate appearances Daniel hit 5 home runs and only hit in 22 RBIs. His slash line read .218/.303/.368 with a .671 OPS and he finished the season with 93 wRC+ and a 0.3 fWAR. He had a relatively high strikeout rate of 31.7%, but took his share of walks at a 11.3% walk rate. When he did hit that ball, it wasn’t hit very hard and often went center. In 2024 he had a Pull% of 39.7% and only recorded a hard hit ball 34.1% of the time. Schneemann hit mostly ground balls last year, 42.9% of his hits to be precise and of the 34.9% of flyballs he hit, 11.4% of those were converted to home runs.

Going into the home opener this year, April 8th, 2025, it was looking like we should expect much of the same for Schneemann. He was batting .083 with a .600 OPS.

As of May 6th, Daniel Schneemann looks like a entirely different hitter. In a month, Schneemann brought his batting average up to .288. His base stats are telling a story of harder hit balls and getting on base more with a .365 OBP and a .591 SLG, bringing his OPS to a whopping .956. His plate discipline hasn’t changed much from 2024, 27.1 K% and 10.0 BB%. Yet he’s maintaining a similar fWAR (0.3 in ‘24, 0.7 in ‘25) and already sporting a 156 wRC+. So why are his metrics looking better in this season’s small sample size?

Instead of hitting mostly medium hit balls, Daniel is now hitting 47.7% hard hit balls. His ground ball rate is up from 42.9% to 48.8% and he’s converting 25.0% of his fly balls to home runs. He has already recorded 19 hits and is nearing 50% of his 2024 total hits. ZiPS is projecting him to record 69 hits, but most other models are projecting 31-33 hits over the remainder of the season. Its also in the quality of the at bats. This breakdown of his home run against the Nationals shows that he is in tune with the sweet spot on his bat.

Last year Schneemann was hitting the sweet spot consistently, but wasn’t hitting hard enough to convert the hits into runs. This year however, is a different story. While he is still hitting the ball on the sweet spot, he is also absolutely smashing the ball. Below is his Savant page as of May 6th. The Barrel% and Hard-Hit% just keep turning more red after each series.

Schneemann is squaring up on the ball, hitting it hard, and being rewarded for it. While he hasn’t reached 100 at bats yet, he is leading the team with .591 SLG and .956 OPS. Kyle Manzardo is leading the team among qualified hitters at .477 SLG and Steven Kwan is leading the team among qualified hitters at .850 OPS. Compared to Cleveland hitters Schneemann is third best in batting average, tied for sixth in RBI, and tied for second in homers.

How sustainable will this version of Daniel Schneemann be? The league is already adjusting to Schneemann with the amount of fastballs being thrown to him decreasing in favor of the offspeed. He is still seeing more fastballs than change ups, but it’s not like he is getting fooled by the offspeed pitches. Schneemann is still hitting change ups at a Hard Hit% rate of 42.9%, but at a .182 BA. His xwOBA for change ups is currently at .243, which isn’t the worst. If Schneemann can adjust to the change up, put up long and competitive at bats and force the pitcher to make an error he will very well continue onto this path. It wouldn’t be an unprecedented success either.

With the Triple-A Columbus Clippers, Schneemann was showing similar results. In 2023 he hit .267/.360/.437 with a 104 wRC+, 13 HR, and 60 RBI in 484 plate appearances. He had a 20.7% K% and a .321 BABIP. In the 53 games (223 PA) he played with the Clippers in 2024 he slashed .294/.428/.556 with a 159 wRC+, 10 HR, and 39 RBI. He had a strike out rate of 23.3% and a .364 BABIP.

There is room to hope that Daniel Schneemann can maintain close to this level of success as the season progresses. Not only does his history point to the rate of production that he’s currently projecting, but Schneemann has the intangible. Everyone who has been asked about Schneemann in an interview talks about how hard of a worker he is. Success can come naturally, but it isn’t often rewarded in the game of baseball. So often, the ones truly rewarded are those who put in the time and effort to improve themselves over the span of a season and a career.

Will Daniel Schneemann continue to wow fans with his late game homer heroics? I, for one, believe so.