By Arslan Ubul, PSO Research Analyst
Mar 02, 2021

The 2021 MLB season is on the horizon with Spring Training games now underway and fans are anxious to see how the new season will unfold after a slow, but ultimately exciting offseason. The shortened 2020 season had some many memorable events, and birth of new young stars, like Ronald Acuna and Fernando Tatis Jr. Relive those moments and learn about some amazing accomplishments through these interesting facts from the 2020 MLB season.

Here are the most interesting facts from every MLB team’s 2020 season:

D-Backs have the fastest player in the MLB in Tim Locastro.

  • Led the MLB in Sprint Speed (min. 10 competitive runs) in back-to-back seasons (’20: 30.7 ft/sec, ’19: 30.8 ft/sec)

Braves have a young superstar to hit homers for the foreseeable future.

  • Ronald Acuna Jr. became the youngest (22 years & 293 days) player with a leadoff HR in MLB postseason history 

Trey Mancini comes back after beating cancer, and will hope to continue his amazing 2019 season.

  • Mancini will return to the Orioles lineup for the 1st time since recovering from Stage 3 colon cancer.
  • The last time Mancini played in 2019, he hit a career-high 36 HRs

Alex Cora will return to managing the Red Sox after a year off to continue what was a historic start.

  • 5th rookie manager to ever win the World Series (2018), and had the 2nd most wins (108) by a rookie manager.

Luis Robert‘s dingers will resume in 2021 in Chicago.

  • Robert’s 487-ft/112.2 mph HR in the 2020 ALWC Game 3 was the longest White Sox HR in the Statcast Era (2015)
  • It was the 2nd longest HR of 2020 and 2nd longest postseason HR by any player since 2015

Cubs have no shortage of HR threats in their lineup entering 2021.

  • Were the 1st team in MLB history to have all 3 OF’s have multi-HR games in the same game

Luis Castillo and the Reds will be keeping batters guessing in 2021.

  • Castillo has the most SOs (312) on a changeup over the last 3 years, 118 more than anybody else

The reigning Cy Young winner will look to keep his pitching crown.

Trevor Story is one of the most productive SS in the MLB, hitting dingers nightly.

  • Story has the most HR (134) by a SS since 2016, and the 2nd most HR (34) of 440+ft by any player in that span

Former No.1 pick Casey Mize will look to improve after a rocky rookie season in 2020.

  • Mize & Dane Dunning became the only 2 pitchers to each make their debut and record 7 Ks in the same game

Nobody in the MLB can curve a ball like Framber Valdez.

  • Valdez led the MLB in SOs (60) on curveballs & had the highest average spin rate (2982 rpm)

The best ability is availability, and Whit Merrifield is the MLB’s best representation for that.

  • Merrifield has 28 more hits (468) than anybody else since 2018 and has the most GP (380) in that span

Mike Trout has consistently been one of the most valuable players in baseball for almost a decade.

  • Trout has the longest streak (9 seasons) of top-5 MVP finishes in MLB history

Pitchers have nightmares when they face Mookie Betts, who is almost guaranteed to make contact.

  • Betts had the lowest whiff rate (6.7%) on in-zone pitches in 2020 (min 250 in-zone pitches swung at)

Sixto Sanchez is one of the most promising pitchers in the game thanks to his high velocity.

  • Sanchez had the 2nd most SOs (8) on 99.0+ mph pitches in the 2020 MLB season, trailing only Jacob deGrom (23)

Christian Yelich didn’t have the same MVP production, but he was still hitting lasers in 2020.

  • 2nd highest average exit velocity (94.0 mph) in the MLB during 2020, trailing only Fernando Tatis Jr.

At the age of 40, Nelson Cruz is still going strong and proving he still is one of the best at hitting homers.

  • Cruz was the 1st 40-year-old to have a share of MLB lead in HR (min. 5 HR) since 1958

Gerrit Cole earned his massive contract and will continue to lead the Yankees rotation with his high-heaters.

  • Cole has the 2nd most SOs (350) on fastballs since 2018, trailing only Lance Lynn (356)

Jacob deGrom‘s heaters are almost unhittable, as the bread and butter for the best pitcher in the game.

  • Threw 50 more 99.0+ MPH pitches (192) in 2020 than any other pitcher 
  • Had 8 more Ks (23) on those heaters than anybody else

Matt Olson started off the 2020 season with a BANG.

  • Olson became the 1st player with a walk-off grand slam on Opening Day in 2020 since Jim Presley in 1986

Bryce Harper didn’t take long to put his name into Phillies record books.

  • Harper has the hardest-hit HR (116.4 MPH) in Phillies team history since 2015

Mitch Keller is one of the most underrated young pitchers in the MLB.

  • 2nd pitcher in the Modern Era (since 1900) to throw at least 5 IP and allow 0 hits in consecutive GS

One of the best young superstars is also the hardest hitting batter in the League.

  • Fernando Tatis Jr. led the MLB in hard-hit rate (62.2%) in 2020

San Francisco were driving in runs at record rates in 2020.

  • Giants became the 1st team since RBIs became official in 1920 to have 3 players with 6 RBI in a single game

Kyle Lewis is off to a historic start to his young Seattle career.

Yadier Molina is as loyal as a player can come, going into his 18th year as a Cardinal.

  • Molina has the most GP (1,989) at Catcher for 1 team in MLB history

Randy Arozrena broke some insane records in the postseason in 2020, hoping to improve even more this season.

  • Most career playoff HR (10) in Rays franchise history and the most XBH (14) by any player in 1 single postseason

Longest average HR distance in the MLB during 2020:

  1. Marcell Ozuna (429 ft.)
  2. Teoscar Hernandez (418)
  3. Joey Gallo (417)

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.‘s bat speed is the best in the bigs.

  • Recorded a 115+ MPH exit velocity (12) 5 more times than anybody else since the start of 2019

Highest SLG% through age-21 season (min 1,000 PA):

  1. Ted Williams (.601)
  2. Jimmie Foxx (.579)
  3. Mel Ott (.558)
  4. Juan Soto (.557)
  5. Mike Trout (.544)

 
 

 

 

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