Looking at Numbers From the 2025 Southern League

The top honor went to 27-year-old reliever Zach Franklin, a former 10th-round pick by Chicago (AL) who finished the year in Triple-A. Franklin, a fastball/splitter/curveball pitcher, struck out 60 over 42 innings with Birmingham.

This top group includes several high-end pitching prospects, including Ty Johnson, Jaxon Wiggins, and 2024 first-rounder Hagen Smith.

As for Thomas White, the Marlins prospect had the highest Whiff% in the Midwest League during his brief stay in the circuit. That percentage didn’t drop much in the Southern League, where he struck out 75 over 45.1 IP.

Two other notable pitchers in the top-15 were Angels prospects George Klassen (33.1%) and Mitch Farris (32.1%).

Flipping the script

Now, we move on to the hitters who had the highest Whiff% in the Southern League:

There are some notable names above, including former college standout Cole Fontenelle, former first-round pick Austin Hendrick, and Rays prospect Xavier Isaac.

Isaac has showcased a ton of raw power — but also a lot of swing-and-miss in his pro career. The 22-year-old first baseman slashed .201/.366/.466 in 41 games this season, a shortened one due to injury.

Another hitter who showed a lot of swing-and-miss in Double-A was Braden Montgomery (36.6%), who saw his Whiff% elevate after jumping up from the South Atlantic League.

As for the best contact hitters, White Sox prospect William Bergolla (7.0%) had the lowest Whiff% in the circuit. He was one of 15 hitters to have a sub-20% Whiff%. Other notables who did include Luis Lara, Leo Balcazar, and Sam Antonacci.

Looking at the first pitch

Now that we’re in the Double-A portion of our Minor League look, let’s take a look at the pitchers who tried to establish the strike zone most in the Southern League. More specifically, the best first-strike pitchers in the circuit:

These metric isn’t the be-all, end-all by any means. For example, Thomas White (56.1%) had the fifth-lowest First Pitch Strike% with the above criteria. Brody Hopkins (60%) and Hagen Smith (60.6%) also had relatively lower First Pitch Strike%, compared to the median of 64.8%.

However, it does give us an idea of how pitchers work at the beginning of the count.

Take kings

Next up in our look at the Southern League numbers are the hitters who had the highest Take% in the circuit:

There are several interesting things to think about when looking at the best — and also, the worst — take hitters in the Minors. One, can these players elicit walks? Two, will these hitters pass up on “good” pitches?

In the cases of Wilken, Bateman, and Levins, all three ranked among the 10 hitters who had the most walks in the circuit. All had walk rates above 10%, with Wilken, a former first-round pick, posting a 20.1% BB%.

Isaac did his fair share, as he walked 34 times over 175 plate appearances. The same can be said for Adams, who walked 43 times over 278 plate appearances.

Moving to the second point, 37.8% of Adams’ takes resulted in a called strike. That percentage was the highest in the Southern League. Wilken (34.4%) also ranked among the 10 highest CS% per take.

Isaac (27.1%) didn’t rank that high.

As for the most aggressive hitters, Bladimir Restituyo (35.9%), Arol Vera (41.0%), and Ben Gobbel (41.5%) had the three lowest Take% in the league.

Hard hitters

Next up are the hard hitters, or the individuals who MLB considered the players who had the best hard-hit percentage in the circuit:

Sal Stewart only played 80 games in Double-A this past season. However, he had quite an impact on the circuit.

Stewart had 10 home runs and 29 extra-base hits for the Lookouts.

Groundball masters

Adam Laskey was recently signed by the Rockies on a Minor League deal.