Lengthy earlier than Jake Bauers turned the playoff hero for the Brewers en path to a commanding 3-0 sequence lead over the dynastic, two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, silencing a rowdy Dodger Stadium crowd, he was coming off a brutal 2024 season that had him considering retirement.
Earlier than he may flip right into a Brewers playoff hero, he was an anchor weighing them down in 2024 after being traded from the Yankees in 2023.
How did Bauers go from almost retiring, solely recommitting to the sport after his spouse revealed she was pregnant, to changing into a driving pressure for a Brewers crew on the cusp of their first World Collection look since 1982? The reply lies in tweaks to his swing and his mentality.
Jake Bauers Has Come Out Swinging within the Playoffs
Bauers’ position within the Brewers’ playoff run hasn’t come out of nowhere. As of September tenth, he was the sixth-best hitter within the MLB by way of weighted on-base common (wOBA) which is a extra holistic means of quantifying offensive worth. He was solely behind Yordan Alvarez, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Juan Soto, James Wooden, and Willson Contreras, whereas rating above stars Shohei Ohtani and Junior Caminero.
In keeping with a stats dive by MLB’s Jared Greenspan in September, Bauers all the time hit the ball arduous at a charge comparable or greater to MLB’s high hitters, however his “fast-swing” share (or swings at 75+ mph) of 68.8% ranks thirteenth in MLB this season. His 52.9% hard-hit charge is within the 96th percentile in MLB.
Flip again the clock just a little extra, and a weblog from Brewers Fanatic revealed that early in 2025, his breakout season in Milwaukee, Bauers had been much more selective. The bat pace by no means shot up, however he was hacking on the ball much more and making much less arduous contact, (or contact, interval) resulting in his struggles in 2024.
In 2024, his in-zone ball in play charge was 31% – within the first month of 2025, per the weblog, that quantity was 41.8%. A lot of that has to do with Bauers making his swing flatter, that’s, altering the aircraft of his swing, in addition to the truth that his bat pace has ticked up from 2024 (73.6 mph) to 2026 (76.5 mph).
The power was all the time there, however Bauers made tweaks to his swing – the aircraft and angle of his swing, and the selectiveness with which he approaches every at bat – which have contributed to his immense success this season.
Bauers’ Mentality Has Deeply Matured
Yogi Berra famously mentioned, “Baseball is 90 p.c psychological. The opposite half is bodily.” That couldn’t be extra relevant to Bauers’ scenario. Solely posting a .700 OPS as soon as in his first seven massive league seasons, it’s simple for a participant of Bauers’ caliber to see nothing however disappointment and put quite a lot of stress on himself within the field.
When he was given a second probability in Milwaukee to show himself, Bauers realized to decelerate and take the stress off himself to supply outcomes.
“I got here into this 12 months feeling like there was actually just one particular person holding me again, and that was myself,” Bauers mentioned. “So I feel I simply gave myself the area to imagine that I may play — I may play on this league.”
It’s been an amazing journey for Bauers, who’s rightfully within the limelight for his clutch house run in Sport 3 final night time.
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