When the Brewers traded for Jake Bauers in 2024, he was entering his age-28 season and was joining his seventh team since he was drafted in 2013. Per Chris Trant of Yahoo Sports, Bauers considered retiring after the 2024 season but needed the health insurance for his pregnant wife.

He is now entering free agency and primed for a big payday after a career year. Below are the slash lines from his last four seasons:

  • 2023 – .202/.279/.413/.693
  • 2024 – .199/.301/.361/.662
  • 2025 – .235/.353/.399/.752
  • 2026 – .266/.389/.484/.874

So what did he do differently, and do the Mets have a player with similar underlying traits that could be poised for a similar jump forward?

What Led to Jake Bauers’ Breakout

The biggest change Bauers made was that he started using his “A swing” at a significantly higher rate. When Bauers first joined the Brewers, his fast swing rate was only 27.6%. Over the last two seasons, he has run a fast swing rate over 50%. This has pushed his average swing speed up by two miles per hour.

With that, his 90% exit velocity jumped from a below-average 104 mph to 107.5 mph. That puts him in the 88th percentile. His hardest-hit ball in 2024 was 110.1 mph; in 2026, it was 114.8 mph.

Bauers managed to do this while holding onto his zone-contact rate and did not see his whiff rate against velocity increase. He is now running elite barrel and hard-hit rates.

Why a Jared Young Breakout Could be Next

Jared Young shares a multitude of similarities with Jake Bauers. He does not walk as much, but per Baseball Prospectus writer Rob Orr’s app he put up similar selectivity and pitch recognition metrics, taking a lesser amount of hittable pitches (25.7% vs 30.7%), running an almost identical SEAGER (28.4 vs 27.3), and putting up a similar selectivity% (54.1% vs 57.9%). This gives Young a good foundation to work off of.

Looking at their Average EV, 90% EV, and Max EV:

  • 2026 Bauers: 92.1 mph/107.5 mph/114.8 mph
  • 2026 Young: 89.6 mph/105.6 mph/113.5 mph

Immediately, it’s clear that Bauers hit the ball significantly harder than Young in 2026. What about 2024 and 2025 Bauers before his big 2026 breakout?

  • 2024 Bauers: 88.5 mph/104.0 mph/110.1 mph
  • 2025 Bauers: 91.3 mph/107.4 mph/112.6 mph
  • 2026 Young: 89.6 mph/105.6 mph/113.5 mph

Jared Young in 2026 sat between 2024 and 2025 Bauers in terms of exit velocities. What is most interesting is comparing Young’s 2025 Triple-A EVs to Bauers’ 2026 major league ones.

  • 2026 Bauers: 92.1 mph/107.5 mph/114.8 mph
  • 2025 Young (Triple-A) – 92.8 mph/.108.4 mph/115.5 mph

As Young continues to see more major league pitching and gets more comfortable, it is not impossible or even improbable that his EVs climb closer in the majors to what they were in Triple-A.

A big part of Bauers’ success was doubling his fast swing rate and utilizing his plus bat speed. Young already has a goodaverage swing speed of 72.1 mph to build off, and his 29.6% fast swing rate is not far off from where Bauers was in 2024.Young could benefit from utilizing his fast swing more often to drive the ball for power, similar to what Bauers is doing.

Conclusion

To be clear, this does not mean this singular fast swing rate change will make Young replicate Bauers’ 2026 slash line. Even Bauers doing the same thing in 2027 might not even perfectly replicate it.

Bauers chases less than Young, which helps him run a much higher walk rate and therefore a higher OBP. Young, meanwhile, will foul off balls Bauers lays off to get to his pitch and put it in play, which could help Young run a higher batting average. But while Bauers uses his A swing when he gets “his pitches”, Young shortens up, limiting his power in those long at-bats. Bauers is also much better at hitting left-handed pitching, though the Brewers also afforded him the opportunity to get better against them. It is unclear if the Mets are willing to do that with Young.

There are a lot of reasons to view Jared Young as an intent-change away from being around an .800 OPS with 20-25 home run power or better. With an offseason to prepare, Young might get better against left-handed pitching. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic when looking through his underlying data, but he still has to make these changes. Not every player is able to make those changes, and there is no guarantee Young can. But when you look at who could be the next Jake Bauers, Jared Young should be towards the top of the list.