Stat Leader Focus: Average Exit Velocity — Elly De La Cruz Crushes the Field
Elly De La Cruz leads MLB with a 97.3 mph average exit velocity over the last 30 days, 2.1 mph clear of the next-closest hitter.
Numbers through 2026-09-11 (rolling 30 days).
Elly De La Cruz is hitting the ball harder than anyone in baseball right now, and it isn't close. Over the rolling 30-day window ending 2026-09-11, the Cincinnati Reds shortstop owns a 97.3 mph average exit velocity across 70 batted balls — a full 2.1 mph ahead of Milwaukee's Garrett Mitchell (95.2 mph), the next-closest qualifier. That gap is enormous. The difference between Mitchell at No. 2 and Heliot Ramos at No. 10 is only 1.4 mph; De La Cruz has lapped the field by more than that on his own.
The Leaderboard
Minimum 30 batted ball events (BBE). Data generated 2026-09-12.
| Player | Team | Avg Exit Velo (mph) | BBE | Avg EV (mph) | HH% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elly De La Cruz | Cincinnati Reds | 97.3 | 70 | 97.3 | 60.0 |
| Garrett Mitchell | Milwaukee Brewers | 95.2 | 42 | 95.2 | 61.9 |
| Rafael Devers | San Francisco Giants | 95.1 | 75 | 95.1 | 54.7 |
| Randal Grichuk | Chicago White Sox | 94.9 | 34 | 94.9 | 58.8 |
| Leo Bernal | St. Louis Cardinals | 94.5 | 33 | 94.5 | 66.7 |
| Jackson Merrill | San Diego Padres | 94.4 | 73 | 94.4 | 52.1 |
| Carter Jensen | Kansas City Royals | 94.4 | 61 | 94.4 | 52.5 |
| Bryce Eldridge | San Francisco Giants | 94.1 | 62 | 94.1 | 54.8 |
| Spencer Jones | New York Yankees | 94.0 | 51 | 94.0 | 51.0 |
| Heliot Ramos | New York Yankees | 93.8 | 32 | 93.8 | 59.4 |
What Average Exit Velocity Measures
Average exit velocity is the mean speed of the ball off the bat across every batted ball a hitter produces — grounders, line drives, and fly balls all count equally. Statcast captures it on every contact event, which makes it one of the most stable, least luck-dependent hitting metrics available. A hitter's batting average can swing wildly on a hot or cold week of batted-ball luck; his exit velocity tells you what his swing is actually doing.
League average sits around 88-89 mph. Anything above 91 mph is above-average quality of contact. Crossing 93 mph puts a hitter in the elite tier, and 95 mph-plus is reserved for the true damage-hitters. De La Cruz at 97.3 mph isn't just leading this leaderboard — he's operating in a tier that typically only a handful of hitters reach across a full season. Pair it with his 60.0% hard-hit rate (the share of his batted balls at 95 mph or harder) and you get the full picture: three of every five balls he puts in play is scorched.
Why It Matters
Front offices use average exit velocity as a core signal in player valuation because it stabilizes fast and predicts future production better than results-based stats. A hitter posting a 94 mph average EV with mediocre surface numbers is a buy-low target; a hitter with gaudy results and an 87 mph average EV is a regression candidate. Scouts and analysts treat it as the raw material everything else — barrels, expected slugging, hard-hit rate — is built from.
Fantasy and DFS players lean on rolling 30-day exit velocity for the same reason: it separates real breakouts from hot streaks. Leo Bernal's 66.7% hard-hit rate on this list is the highest of the group and a genuine signal on a 33-batted-ball sample. Randal Grichuk's 94.9 mph and 58.8% HH% say his power surge is earned, not lucky.
In Legends Deck
In Legends Deck, average exit velocity feeds directly into card power ratings. Hitters who sit atop this leaderboard see their simulated contact quality rise — De La Cruz's 97.3 mph mark translates into harder contact, more extra-base outcomes, and higher ceiling rolls in the simulation engine. Because the game runs on real Statcast data, a rolling-30-day surge like this one moves the market: cards of players on this table carry premium power ratings right now.
If you're building a lineup around raw contact quality, this leaderboard is your shopping list. Browse current listings on the Legends Deck marketplace and grab these bats before their ratings update fully prices them in.
Related Reading
- What is barrel rate? — the next layer up from exit velocity, combining EV with launch angle.
- What is max exit velocity? — how a hitter's single hardest-hit ball signals raw power ceiling.
Check back next week for the next Stat Leader Focus, and see whether anyone closes the 2.1 mph gap on De La Cruz.