What's the Average Exit Velocity in MLB? 2026
The MLB league-average exit velocity in 2026 is roughly 88-89 mph across all qualified hitters, while the hardest hitters in baseball average above 95 mph. Here's what counts as a good average exit velocity, the league baseline, how 'exit velo' is measured, and who's at the top right now.
2026 MLB Exit Velocity Leaders
As of May 31, 2026Live top 5 by exit velocity from real Statcast data, refreshed nightly from Baseball Savant.
| # | Hitter | Team | Exit Velocity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Wood | WSH | 96.6 mph |
| 2 | Oneil Cruz | PIT | 96.3 mph |
| 3 | Pete Alonso | BAL | 95.1 mph |
| 4 | Yordan Alvarez | HOU | 94.5 mph |
| 5 | Nick Kurtz | ATH | 94.4 mph |
See the 2026 MLB Exit Velocity Leaders — the full ranked list of every qualified hitter with team, position, and card rating.
What is the average exit velocity in MLB?
The MLB league-average exit velocity in 2026 sits right around 88-89 mph across every qualified hitter, measured on all batted balls — ground balls, line drives, and fly balls combined. That number has been remarkably stable for years: the league average has hovered in the high-80s for the entire Statcast era. The elite hitters at the top of the 2026 MLB exit velocity leaderboard average above 95 mph, while the bottom of the qualified pool sits in the low-80s. See all MLB Statcast leaderboards →
So when someone says a hitter "has good exit velo," the reference point is roughly 88-89 mph. Anything meaningfully above that is a plus; the names averaging 93+ mph are the genuine power hitters whose contact quality shows up in slugging and home-run totals over a full season.
What counts as a good average exit velocity?
There's no single official cutoff, but the practical tiers map cleanly to outcomes:
- Elite (94+ mph): the top of the leaderboard. These hitters do real damage on nearly everything they put in play. Usually fewer than ten qualified hitters live here.
- Above average (90-93 mph): strong, sustainable power contact. This range correlates with above-average slugging and a healthy barrel rate.
- League average (~88-89 mph): the baseline. A hitter here is producing roughly typical contact quality and likely leans on other skills — speed, contact rate, plate discipline.
- Below average (under 86 mph): soft-contact profile. These hitters usually need elite bat-to-ball skills or speed to sustain offensive value, because the raw contact alone won't carry them.
One important distinction: average exit velocity is different from max exit velocity. Average EV measures consistent contact quality across every ball in play; max EV measures the single hardest ball a hitter has produced and is the better read on raw power ceiling. A hitter can have a modest average but a huge max if they pair occasional 115-mph blasts with a lot of soft contact.
How is exit velocity measured?
Exit velocity is the speed of the baseball at the moment it leaves the bat, measured in miles per hour. Statcast's Hawk-Eye optical tracking system captures it on every batted ball in every MLB park, precise to within a fraction of a mph. The published "average exit velocity" for a hitter is the mean across all of their batted-ball events on the season.
Two things to keep in mind when reading the number:
- It includes everything. Weak ground balls and pop-ups drag the average down, which is why even elite hitters rarely average above 96 mph over a full season. The average is a blend of their best and worst contact.
- It needs a sample. A 95-mph average over 10 batted balls is noise. The exit-velocity leaderboard applies a minimum at-bats filter so a hot week doesn't put someone at the top of the board ahead of a hitter with a full season of loud contact.
For the complete definition, formula, and a worked example, see what is exit velocity.
Why does average exit velocity matter?
Average exit velocity is one of the most predictive Statcast metrics for future power output, and it stabilizes faster than batting average or slugging. The reason is simple: how hard a hitter consistently strikes the ball is mostly a skill, not luck, so it carries from week to week and year to year better than results-based stats that depend on where the ball lands.
That's why front offices and projection systems lean on it. A hitter whose results are lagging but whose average exit velocity is strong is usually a buy-low candidate — the loud contact is real and the hits tend to follow. A hitter whose batting average is propped up on soft contact is the opposite: the floor is shakier than the surface stats suggest. Pair average exit velocity with barrel rate and hard-hit rate to separate raw power from power that consistently gets into the air for extra bases.
Who has the highest average exit velocity in MLB 2026?
The current 2026 leaders are in the live table above, refreshed nightly from Baseball Savant. The top of the board is the small group of hitters averaging above 95 mph on every ball in play — the threshold MLB itself uses to classify a single batted ball as "hard-hit." For the full ranked list of every qualified hitter with team, position, and card rating, see the 2026 MLB exit velocity leaderboard.
How does exit velocity translate to Legends Deck card ratings?
The Power attribute on every Legends Deck hitter card is derived directly from real Statcast exit-velocity and barrel data, refreshed nightly from Baseball Savant. A hitter averaging well above the 88-89 mph league baseline maps to an elite Power rating; a soft-contact hitter maps lower regardless of their batting average. It's a contact-quality rating, not a results rating.
Power also feeds the simulation engine in Franchise Mode — high-exit-velocity cards produce more extra-base hits and home runs in live PvP games. Browse the full card directory for current 2026 Power ratings, or jump to the exit velocity leaderboard for the live ranked list of MLB's hardest hitters.