Chase Meidroth did something rare in the middle of a season: he publicly claimed his Mexican identity — put the flag in his bio, said it out loud — and then went out and hit like he had something to prove. In the 45 at-bats since that moment, the White Sox second baseman has gone 18-for-45 with 3 home runs, 12 RBI, and a .400 average. Statcast has its own take on how he’s doing it.
The Numbers the Mexican Baseball Community Already Has Memorized
A post by @beeleaux put it as cleanly as anything: 45 AB, 18 hits, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 11 runs scored. In any other context, that’s just a nice hot streak. Here, it landed right after Meidroth made a statement that MLB rarely hears — and the reaction from Mexican baseball fans was immediate. Fan accounts had him on their timelines before any major outlet picked up the story. That makes sense: established Mexican players in the big leagues aren’t exactly common, and when one shows up hitting like this, the embrace is almost automatic.
What Statcast Says About How Meidroth Actually Hits
This is where the story gets genuinely interesting. According to Statcast, Meidroth averaged 87.2 mph exit velocity across the full 2026 season — 20th percentile, meaning he’s one of the softer contact hitters in the majors. His average bat speed was 67 mph, percentile 1. Literally one of the slowest swings in the big leagues.
So how does a guy with those numbers hit .276 over 643 plate appearances, with 16 home runs and a .765 OPS? Two other Statcast figures tell the real story:
- Squared-up rate: percentile 86 — when he makes contact, he’s hitting it on the barrel.
- Whiff rate: percentile 78 — he almost never misses when he swings.
You don’t need to hit it hard if you almost never miss it. Meidroth is the opposite profile of the modern power hitter — no elite velocity, no brute force, just timing and clean contact. His OBP of .350 confirms he also reads pitchers well: 61 walks on the season, 55th percentile in swing discipline. He’s the kind of hitter advanced metrics sometimes undervalue because the contact-quality numbers look underwhelming — until you check the actual results.
The Full Statcast Breakdown for 2026
- Plate appearances: 643
- Home runs: 16 | RBI: 63
- AVG: .276 | OPS: .765
- xwOBA: .301 (what his contact quality «predicts»)
- Avg exit velocity: 87.2 mph (percentile 20)
- Barrel rate: 4.6%
- Hard-hit rate: 34.6%
- Avg bat speed: 67 mph (percentile 1)
- Squared-up rate: percentile 86
- Whiff rate: percentile 78
His xwOBA sits at .301 — below what his actual production suggests — which means Meidroth is consistently outperforming what the underlying contact numbers expect. That’s not luck. That’s skill that the standard Statcast filters weren’t built to capture.
