So Far, Sal Frelick's Transformation is a Resounding Success

Over the first 60 games of this season, Sal Frelick has been a vital piece of the Brewers' fight to stay above .500 and in the thick of the NL playoff race. He's batting .291/.352/.404 in 237 plate appearances, and although his 13 extra-base hits sounds like an anemic number, he's already doubled last year's home run total (four, up from two) and is now making hard enough contact to consistently find singles. Last year, he wasn't even managing that.

Somewhat famously, Frelick added muscle this winter, and that's translated into better bat speed this season. He averaged just 66.3 mph in bat speed in 2024, but that figure is up to 68.0 this year. To accomplish that, he's slightly flattened the tilt of his bat through the hitting zone, which can compromise one's ability to get the ball in the air—but, by getting started a bit earlier in his load and aiming to catch the ball farther in front of himself, he's more than made up for that. With an attack angle up from 6° to 8° and his attack direction swung around from 1° toward the opposite field to 2° to the pull field, on average, Frelick is earlier on his swing. The difference in bat speed explains most of that, so essentially, he's just getting started on time and letting his body take care of the rest.

Frelick's average exit velocity is up 3.2 miles per hour, and he's gone from one of the lowest hard-hit rates in the league to a subpar but perfectly solid 31.2%. The flatter swing has helped him make solid contact in the upper third of the zone more often. He's trimmed his strikeout rate and is still drawing enough walks to sustain a high on-base percentage. For Frelick, a little bit of bat speed seemed almost certain to go a long way, and that's precisely what we're seeing this season. He can still make very good swing decisions; he just gets rewarded for them more consistently this way.

Of course, the risk here is that that edge erodes over the grind of the season. Frelick's bat speed waned as his first full season wore on.

He's at a higher baseline right now than he was at the same point last year, but if the same pattern emerges, he'll be unable to hang onto the production we've seen so far in 2025. Part of the virtue of adding good weight during the offseason should be to forestall that kind of loss, but if it does happen, he'll need to change his timing and create a different plan for being on time with the barrel. Last year, as his bat speed fell, so did his attack angle, so he wasn't able to get back on time when the swing slowed down in 2024. Under a different hitting coach this year, maybe he'd prove more able to make that adjustment, but the Brewers will hope he doesn't have to.

Milwaukee's lineup engine can run without huge contributions from Frelick. If he merely holds his own and continues to play Gold Glove-caliber defense in the outfield, the team will be happy with his performance. However, if he can hold onto the improvements he's made so far as the season wears on, it will help the offense reach a higher consistent level during the late summer and fall—just when the team looks likely to need it most, as they fight tooth and nail for their third straight NL Central championship.