MLB Trends: Schwarber & Singer Improving Against Left-Handed Pitchers

We’re roughly three weeks into the 2025 MLB regular season, when sample sizes start becoming meaningful but it’s still perfectly fine to say "it’s still early." Because it really is early. If the 162-game season were a nine-inning game, we’d have just two outs in the bottom of the first inning right now. That’s how much baseball we still have ahead of us.

But even with this small slice of the season, some interesting trends are already emerging. Here’s what’s catching attention as we approach the three-week mark.

Schwarber: From Lefty Liability to Lefty Destroyer

Kyle Schwarber just crushed an absolute monster home run off Chris Sale last Tuesday. We’re talking about a 462-foot bomb with a 116.7 mph exit velocity—the farthest and hardest hit homer Sale has ever surrendered to a left-handed batter.

This wasn’t just a lucky swing.

Heading into Tuesday’s game, Schwarber was hitting .429 against lefties this season with three homers—matching his total against right-handed pitchers in nearly half the at-bats.

What’s really impressive is that this isn’t just a 2025 fluke. Schwarber has completely transformed his approach against left-handed pitching over the past few years:

That’s night and day. He’s gone from a guy who’d regularly sit against tough lefties to someone who’s in the lineup every single day—and for good reason.

So how did he do it? Lots and lots of practice.

"Left-handed angles, left-handed arm, left-handed flips – the more that he could face lefties, the easier it was going to be," Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long explained last June. "My assistant at the time was Pat Roessler. He literally pulled Schwarber every single day, and he’d say, ‘Hey, let’s go get your 50 breaking balls off the machine.’"

Even now, at 32, Schwarber still does pregame work against lefties—even on days when a right-hander is starting.

This isn’t just hitting off an old-school pitching machine. Today’s technology can mimic different arm angles and pitch shapes, giving hitters realistic practice against specific challenges.

What’s most impressive is that Schwarber and the Phillies took something that was once a major weakness and turned it into a strength. That’s the kind of mid-career development that separates good players from great ones.

Singer Finds a New Weapon

When the Reds traded for Brady Singer in the Jonathan India deal with the Royals, plenty of people (myself included) had doubts. Singer has always been a decent mid-rotation starter, but he’s struggled with home runs and left-handed hitters. Moving to homer-happy Great American Ball Park seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Three starts in, Singer has a 3.18 ERA across 17 innings. He’s allowed just three runs and one homer in 12 innings at his new home park, including seven shutout innings against the Rangers in his Cincinnati debut.

"He’s nasty. Facing him, he’s gross," Reds catcher Jose Trevino said after Singer’s first start. "He’s got nasty stuff, and just adding pitches like that really helps his arsenal."

The big change? Singer has added a cutter to his repertoire.

In his Reds debut, Singer threw 16 cutters—the first 16 he’s ever thrown in the majors. He followed with 14 in his second start and nine in his third. Overall, he’s using this new pitch about 15% of the time.

The early results against lefties are promising:

It’s a tiny sample size, so let’s not declare that Singer has completely solved his lefty problems. But the new cutter gives him another weapon, and that’s always valuable.

The real benefit isn’t even about how good the cutter itself is—it’s that it allows Singer to throw fewer four-seamers and sinkers, pitches lefties have crushed in the past. Anything that keeps hitters guessing is a positive.

Lots of pitchers talk about adding new pitches during spring training, but few actually bring them into the regular season. Singer’s cutter made the cut, and it’s now a legitimate part of his arsenal.

Stolen Bases Keep Climbing

Now that we’re a few weeks in, the home run rate (1.07 HR/9) has settled almost exactly where it was at this point last season (1.05 HR/9). But regular base hits are down—the league batting average on balls in play is .280 compared to .291 through three weeks last year.

What’s way up? Stolen bases.

We’re now in Year 3 with the larger bases and limits on pitcher disengagements, rules designed to encourage stealing. The impact has been dramatic. MLB teams stole 2,486 bases in 2022 (the last year with old rules), then jumped to 3,503 in 2023 and 3,617 in 2024.

The trend is continuing in 2025:

That attempt rate—measuring how often teams try to steal when they have the opportunity—has jumped dramatically. In 2022, teams attempted steals in just 5.0% of opportunities. Now we’re approaching 8%!

What’s impressive is that success rates haven’t dropped even as attempts have increased. Teams have realized they can steal even more bases than they already were, so they’re going for it.

And historically, steal attempts increase as the season progresses and weather warms up. In both 2023 and 2024, the full-season attempt rates were higher than the first three weeks. We could see an 8% attempt rate or higher by season’s end!

With non-homer hits down, stolen bases take on added importance. If you can’t get those extra 90 feet on a single, you have to manufacture them with your legs.

Stolen bases are among the most exciting plays in baseball. The more the merrier. Now if MLB could find a way to create more singles, doubles, and triples without sacrificing steals, we’d really be in business.