Looking at the Numbers From the 2025 Midwest League

The Marlins have something special with Thomas White. White, who was taken 25 pitches after Noble Meyer was selected with the 10th overall pick, had the best swing-and-miss rate in the Midwest League in what was a stepping stone for the left-hander.

White finished the year in Triple-A, months after he started the 2025 campaign with Beloit.

Braden Davis, who had a marvelous season with Palm Beach and had a Whiff% over 40% in the Florida State League, posted an even better one over a smaller sample size of eight games with Peoria.

If we expand this list even further, down to 25, there are a lot of other notable names. Clark Candiotti (37%, Diamondbacks), A.J. Causey (35.7%, Royals), Gage Jump (35.2%, Athletics), and Karson Milbrandt (34%, Marlins) were among them.

And like we’ve done in the past, just because a pitcher misses a lot of bats does not necessarily mean that individual is a high-end prospect.

Angel Gonzalez, the 23-year-old right-hander, was released in July by the Cardinals. Gonzalez walked 47 over 35.1 IP. Alex Makarewich, who struck out 48 over 31 innings with Great Lakes, walked 41.

Yerlin Rodriguez and Christian Ruebeck also had walk problems in High-A.

Flipping the script

Let’s flip this around and take a look at the hitters who swung and missed the most in the High-A level:

The bottom 10 includes a couple of Day 2 picks from the 2023 MLB Draft in Trevor Werner, Joe Vetrano, Bennett Lee, and Connor Burns.

However, some very interesting names just missed this list.

Rodney Green Jr. (36.7%, Athletics) had a lot of swing-and-miss trouble in college. That continued in 2025 as a pro. Former first-rounder Blake Mitchell (35.4%, Royals) had some as well in his second full pro season.

Dodgers outfield prospect Zyhir Hope had the 19th-worst Whiff% at 34.4%

On the opposite side, there were 24 hitters with sub-20% Whiff% rates in the Midwest League based on the above criteria. Kendall George (19.6%), Max Clark (18.3%), Kevin McGonigle (16.9%), and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (14.7%) were among the players in that group.

Kuroda-Grauer had the second-best Whiff%, behind only fellow A’s prospect Casey Yamauchi.

Hard-hit machines

Next, a look at the best hard-hit batters:

As I’ve noted in past recaps, this metric has more subjectivity based on how the batted ball is scored. However, there are quite a few notable names here.

Mike Sirota only played 59 overall games this season, 35 of which came in High-A. However, Sirota, who came into 2024 as a potential first-rounder, got his prospect stock back up. The former Northeastern star slashed .316/.458/.556 with six home runs and 15 extra-base hits with the Loons.

Other notable power hitters, including Zyhir Hope and Josue Briceño, are also here.

Ground-ball rates

Lastly, let’s take a look at the best ground-ball pitchers in the Midwest League:

Ground-ball pitchers can vary in terms of effectiveness. However, there were quite a few who are notable ones among the 10 listed above.

Wyatt Crowell was a former fourth-rounder by the Dodgers who struck out 93 over 78 innings in Great Lakes before he was promoted to Double-A.

Josh Hartle, acquired by the Guardians last winter for Spencer Horwitz, was the only pitcher with a 60%+ GB% among the criteria. Hartle averaged almost a strikeout per inning (100 over 103.1 IP) and had a .195 opponents’ batting average.

Then, there’s Cade Winquest, the hard-throwing pitcher taken by the Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft.