5 Hitters Who Have Been Successful Despite Their Free-Swinging Ways

Avisail Garcia, OF, Chicago White Sox

Chicago White Sox outfielder Avisail Garcia has basically built his reputation in the big leagues on the fact that he swings at just about everything. Since debuting with the Detroit Tigers in 2012, Garcia has never finished a season with his swing rate below 54.4%, or his chase rate below 39.9%. And with current marks of 59.3% and 41.1% in 2017, respectively, he's on track to keep that streak alive.

The only difference about this year is that it's turned into actual production at the plate.

From 2012-16 -- which spanned 1,551 plate appearances -- Garcia posted just an 89 wRC+ with a .127 ISO. Overall during this time, his performance was worth -1.5 fWAR, but those numbers have improved to 120, .182, and 2.3, respectively, in just 363 plate appearances this year.

Is it legit, though? His batted-ball profile and quality-of-contact numbers don't look much different than his previous performances, yet his BABIP is currently .361 (it was .320 for his career heading into this year).

His 53.4% ground-ball rate is one of the highest among qualified hitters in baseball, and despite a decrease in hard-hit rate for this batted-ball event compared to last year (24.9% in '16, 21.4% so far in '17), his wRC+ has improved from 7 to 70. Furthermore, while Garcia's hard-hit rate on fly balls and line drives has slightly improved, he's getting unusual production from a situation that's typically the worst of the three.

His overall numbers look great, but Garcia has also slowly been regressing as the year goes on. After posting a 174 wRC+ during April, that number has gone down each month, with his 55 wRC+ in July being his worst yet before hitting the disabled list with a thumb injury.