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Zach McKinstry

2026
Tigers· RF · bats L · throws R· 423 plate appearances
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Grade

His grade shows how good he has been, and at what.
Fbetter than 19% of hitters at creating bases

His season is in line with his established level.

Patient Contact

Works counts and puts the ball in play; modest slug.

One of the toughest bats to strike out

Zach McKinstry rarely strikes out. He strikes out less often than 84% of qualified hitters. The contact is soft, though. Only 4% of qualified hitters hit the ball hard less often.

423 plate appearances · data through 2026-09-27.

How to read this chart
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size, not a raw season stat, and farther out is better. A ↓ marks a stat where a lower number is better, and its spoke is flipped so farther out still means better. The middle ring marks the league median and the outer ring the league best. EB/PA is estimated bases, HR% home runs, BB% walks and K% strikeouts, each per plate appearance, and Hard-hit% is balls hit 95 mph or harder. Percentiles compare him with 534 qualified hitters, the ones with 50 or more plate appearances.

Plays like…

Each of these hitters shares his archetype and sits closest to him in EB/PA. Pick one to see him side by side with Zach McKinstry.

Max SchuemannYankeesLeo JiménezMarlinsSung-Mun SongPadresXavier EdwardsMarlins

Hitter type

See what kind of hitter he is, next to the rest of the league.

Hitter type

He hits the ball hard far less often than most, and he controls the strike zone far better than most.

League best:BB% − K% Josue De Paula (14.3%)Hard-hit% Yohandy Morales (62.5%)

How to read this chart
Two skills separate hitting styles: not giving away at-bats (walk rate minus strikeout rate) and squaring the ball up (hard-hit rate). Up and to the right is better on both. Every dot is a hitter with at least 40 plate appearances this season, and dot size tracks plate appearances. Click any dot to open that hitter's page.
 Zach McKinstryLeague medianPercentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better).359.511—
Walk rate(higher = better)10%8%69th
Strikeout rate(lower = better)16%23%84th

A higher percentile is better, and the 99th is the top of the league.

Platoon splits

See how he hits left-handed and right-handed pitchers.

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

He hits righties better than lefties, by 0.071 EB/PA.

50% probable range: +0.048 to +0.094

vs LHP85 PA0.340

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.340 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.315 to 0.364, based on 85 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.330 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.424 EB/PA.

vs RHP339 PA0.411

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.411 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.394 to 0.428, based on 339 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.380 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.433 EB/PA.

0.3010.3380.3740.4110.447
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

His split is about typical for a lefty bat (median 0.078). He sits below the league median against both hands.

He sits in the league's bottom quarter vs lefties and the league's middle half vs righties.

How to read this chart
  • Each dot is his estimate against that hand, with its 50% probable range as the bar. Higher is better.
  • The diamond is his raw rate, which small samples make noisy, so the simulator pulls the dot toward a more trustworthy value.
  • The dashed tick is the league median, and the shaded strip is the middle half of hitters with 50 or more plate appearances.
  • Tap or hover a mark for its number. LHP and RHP are left- and right-handed pitchers. More on the About page

How he hits

See what his contact is worth and what pitchers throw him.

He hits the ball to the pull side most often, and that's where he does the most damage.

Best batted balls

Every ball Zach McKinstry put in play this season is drawn where it landed.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Dustin MayHome run
102 mph · 29° · worth 3.6 bases
04/04 vs Cardinals
vs Jack PerkinsHome run
101 mph · 25° · worth 2.7 bases
07/09 vs Athletics
vs Joe RyanTriple
95 mph · 15° · worth 2.3 bases
09/07 vs Twins
vs Alex JacksonHome run
93 mph · 33° · worth 2.2 bases
06/11 vs Twins
vs Taj BradleyDouble
94 mph · 27° · worth 2.2 bases
04/07 vs Twins

Luck check

How to read this chart
Dot color is estimated bases (EB), what the contact was worth no matter what the defense did with it. Darker means more bases, so a dark hollow ring in the outfield is a crushed ball that got caught. Tap or hover a dot or a row to link the two, and use the ▶ links to watch a play on Baseball Savant.

Performance by pitch type

2026 · 1,620 pitches

Each row shows the bases he adds per 100 pitches of one type, against the league.

← below league medianabove league median →
Four-Seam Fastball (589 pitches)
−2.0
Lg median −0.4Lg best +8.7
Sinker (228 pitches)
−4.2
Lg median −1.3Lg best +9.7
Changeup (171 pitches)
−4.5
Lg median −0.5Lg best +16.5
Slider (156 pitches)
+0.1
Lg median −0.5Lg best +12.2
Curveball (154 pitches)
−1.0
Lg median +0.4Lg best +22.2
Cutter (137 pitches)
−4.0
Lg median −0.4Lg best +16.4
Sweeper (84 pitches)
+7.1
Lg median −0.2Lg best +15.7
Splitter (72 pitches)
−6.3
Lg median −0.5Lg best +12.9
Other (29 pitches)

−1.3 bases per 100 · no single-type league comparison

Above league medianBelowMiddle half of the leagueLg medianLg best
How to read this chart
Each row is the bases he adds per 100 pitches of that type, on the same scale as the pitcher pages’ “saved/cost per 100” but from the hitter’s side. Every pitch counts. Taking a ball adds value, whiffing loses it, and the pitch that ends the plate appearance scores its outcome against what that count usually produces. A value of +3.5 means his results against that pitch have been worth about 3.5 extra bases per 100 seen. Higher is better. Types with fewer than 50 pitches seen pool into “Other”.

Deserved vs. actual

Zach McKinstry has been credited with about the bases his contact earned so far.

Deserved by his own contact110
Actually credited to him109

Both bars count only his 306 balls in play, so walks and strikeouts are left out.

How to read this chart
Every ball he puts in play is worth the bases its exit velocity, launch angle and direction usually earn. If the second bar is longer than the first, his results have run ahead of his contact and he has been lucky. If it is shorter, he has been unlucky.

Swing

See how fast he swings and what he changes with two strikes. League tracking starts in 2024.

Swing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-09-27
Bat speed · 728 swings
67.1 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.8 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.4 mph)
Lg median

He swings slower than most hitters. His swing is shorter than most hitters', with a flatter attack angle than most. With two strikes, he cuts his bat speed about as much as most hitters. His bat travels on a steeper path than most. His bat speed is down 3.3 mph since April, which counts as "a real change" and not day-to-day noise.

Attack angle
7.1°
Lg median 9.6°
Swing length
6.6 ft
Lg median 7.3 ft
Swing path tilt
37.7°
Lg median 32.4°
Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Bat speed counts competitive swings only, so bunts and check swings under 50 mph are left out.
  • Swing length is how far the sweet spot of the bat travels during the swing. Attack angle is the bat’s upward or downward tilt through the zone.
  • Swing path tilt is how steep the bat’s path is.
  • “A real change” means the move from his first full month to his latest clears a strict statistical bar.
  • None of these is better or worse on its own. Swing style trades power against contact, and the fastest and slowest swings in the league both belong to stars. More on the About page

Timing

See whether his swing meets the ball early or late, over or under. Tracking starts in mid-2023.

Timing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-09-27
Perfect contact · 738 swings
27.4%
Lg median 22.6%Lg best 37.9%
On-time swings
72.1%
Lg median 64.6%Lg best 79.6%
Miss distance on whiffs
2.6 in
Lg median 3.0 inLg best 1.0 in

He squares the ball up more often than most hitters. His misses split about evenly between early and late. When he misses vertically, it's more often under the ball than over it. More of his mishits come from reaching at pitches away from him than from getting tied up inside.

Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Perfect contact is a swing that is centered, on time and lined up, all at once. On-time swings land within 7 milliseconds of ideal timing. Higher is better on both.
  • Miss distance counts swings and misses only. It is how far the barrel half of the bat passed from the ball, in inches, and lower is better.
  • League comparisons cover hitters with 100 or more tracked swings this season. Switch hitters have both sides combined.
  • More on the About page

How he sets up

See where he stands in the box and how his feet are set, next to the league-average setup.

How he sets up

He sets up just 4° open, more closed than 77% of hitters (league average 13° open).

Top-down batting stance vs league averagePitcher ↑

Each point is his average setup for one month this season, about a second before each pitch.

Middle half of the leagueLg median
His feetLg avg
How to read this chart
  • This is an overhead view of the batter’s box. The dots are his feet about one second before the pitch, and the rings are the league-average setup.
  • Open means his front foot is pulled off the line to the plate, and closed means it steps toward it. Neither is better or worse.
  • The chart is his monthly average this season. The band and dashed line are the middle half and the median of hitters over the whole season.
  • On the angle chart, below zero is open and above zero is closed.
  • Data through 2026-09-27. More on the About page

Best games

These are his biggest games this season.

Best games

These are his best games this season, ranked by bases above replacement.

Multi-season trends · Zach McKinstry

Compared with last season, his HR% is down, his BB% is up, his K% is down, his Barrel% is down and his Hard-hit% is down.

Actual rates show what happened on the field, season by season.