When we talk about sports, we talk a lot about a player’s “athletic prime,” but what does that mean and why does it matter?
Quite simply, an athlete’s prime is an age range in which they perform at their best. Research has supported the existence of an athletic prime, and while it differs in every sport, Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster notes that a baseball player’s athletic prime is between the ages of 26 and 29. While some athletes will have their best seasons before or after this range, research indicates that this is when muscle development, flexibility, regenerative health, and many other factors lead to a baseball player being in their peak physical condition.
So what do we do with that information: only draft players between the ages of 26 and 29?
Not quite; however, I thought it would be interesting to see which hitters in their athletic prime could be in for mini breakout seasons of sorts. After sorting by age to create an initial leaderboard, I looked at hitters who produced above-league-average value in a few of the categories I like the most when it comes to hitters. Those categories are: walk rate, strikeout rate, chase rate, barrel rate, swinging strike rate, and contact rate. The goal of this endeavor is to find hitters who are entering their prime years who last year proved to have above-average plate discipline, contact rates, and quality of contact. By doing that, we can hopefully land on some hitters who could be in for breakout seasons in 2025.
To do that, I also removed players who we already think of as top-tier talents for fantasy baseball, so that included: Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, Ronald Acuna Jr., Austin Riley, Pete Alonso, Willy Adames, Ozzie Albies, William Contreras, Adley Rutschman, Cody Bellinger, and Anthony Santander.
I also made a few tough cuts on players who were close to hitting all the thresholds. Ian Happ and his teammate Michael Busch missed with their swinging strike rate, strikeout rate, and contact rate, so while they were close, they’re off the list. Shea Langeliers and Ryan Jeffers also had poor contact numbers, but given that catcher isn’t filled with many elite hitters, they’re still solid targets in your drafts. Alec Bohm met the criteria for a lot of the categories, but he didn’t walk enough or barrel the ball enough, so I cut him at the last minute. Victor Robles missed the mark with both his walk rate and barrel rate, so I left him off. Jose Miranda is another noteworthy one who could…