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

Mike Moustakas, 3B, Kansas City Royals

To put it plainly, the Kansas City Royals really like swinging the bat. So much, in fact, that their team swing rate of 50.9% is the highest in baseball. One of the qualified hitters above that number on their own is third baseman Mike Moustakas, and his 57.0% swing rate isn't even the highest on the team (we'll get to that guy in a minute).

This is something completely new for Moustakas. Entering 2017, he had never posted a swing rate above 49.1% in a single season, and he hadn't even reached that number since 2012. And it's not like he's focusing on one particular situation, either -- his 42.7% chase rate and 75.5% zone swing rate are both on track to be single-season career highs by a significant margin.

It's come at the expense of making less contact (his 79.7% contact rate and 16.4% strikeout rate on pace to be the second-worst of his career), but he's showing the power we got a glimpse of in 27 games last season before an ACL injury prematurely ended his campaign.

Through 408 plate appearances this year, the third baseman has either set or is on pace for career highs in home runs (30), ISO (.277), and hard-hit rate (33.0%). Even though he's not making as much contact, he's doing more damage with the contact he's actually making. And while we've seen teams valuing player performance differently in recent years, it certainly won't hurt Moustakas to head into free agency this winter with a 30-homer season under his belt.