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Will Benson

2026
Reds· RF · bats L · throws L· 114 PA
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Grade

How good he's been, and at what
Abetter than 80% of hitters at creating bases

His season is in line with his established level.

Three-Outcome Slugger

Elite power and walks; lives with the strikeouts.

Big production, big swing-and-miss

Will Benson walks at an elite clip — better than 90% of qualified hitters. The strikeouts pile up, though — only 7% of qualified hitters whiff more often.

114 plate appearances · data through 2026-08-22.

How to read this chart
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size — not raw season stats — so farther out = better. Spokes are the metric itself; ↓ marks a rate where a LOWER number is better. Percentiles vs. 499 qualified hitters — 50+ plate appearances.

Plays like…

Same archetype, nearest by rate — pick one to see him side by side with Will Benson.

Manny MachadoPadresTyler StephensonRedsMarcell OzunaPiratesMichael ConfortoCubs

Hitter type

What kind of hitter he is, next to the league

Hitter type

Free-swinging hitter.

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 when he does put it in play (hard-hit rate). Every dot is a qualified hitter this season; dot size tracks plate appearances. Click any dot to open that hitter's page.
 Will BensonLeague medianPercentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better).611.50880th
Walk rate(higher = better)14%8%90th
Strikeout rate(lower = better)33%23%7th

100th percentile = best in MLB.

Platoon splits

How he fares against lefties and righties

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

Better vs RHP than vs LHP by 0.077 EB/PA (modeled).

50% probable range: +0.058 to +0.097

vs LHP1 PA0.435

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.435 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.407 to 0.463, based on 1 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.010 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.425 EB/PA.

Raw vs LHP rate (0.010) is off this scale — small samples like this are exactly why the shrunk estimate (the dot) is the trustworthy number, not the raw one.

vs RHP113 PA0.512

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.512 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.489 to 0.535, based on 113 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.448 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.436 EB/PA.

0.3910.4310.4710.5110.551
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

About the typical split for a lefty bat (median 0.080). He's above the league median against both hands, so the weaker side is still a strength — not a hole.

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

How to read this chart
  • Tap or hover any mark for its number, or tab to a row for all of them.
  • His raw rate is the unshrunk number against that hand — small samples make it noisy, which is why the model pulls his estimate toward a more trustworthy value.
  • “Middle half of the league” is the 25th–75th percentile of all hitters against that hand.
  • Shrunk splits beat raw splits decisively at low PA counts and converge with them as playing time builds — individual platoon gaps need roughly 1,000+ PA vs a hand before the raw number alone can be trusted.

How he hits

What happens when he puts a ball in play

He hits the ball to the pull side most often, and that's where his hardest contact goes.

Best batted balls

Where every ball Will Benson put in play landed this season.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Carmen MlodzinskiHome run
EV 106 mph · LA 29° · EB 3.8
05/02 vs Pirates
vs Jimmy HergetHome run
EV 103 mph · LA 32° · EB 3.8
04/29 vs Rockies
vs Lucas ErcegHome run
EV 100 mph · LA 26° · EB 3.5
06/02 vs Royals
vs Miles MikolasOutRobbed
EV 112 mph · LA 18° · EB 2.6
05/12 vs Nationals
vs Jake IrvinOutRobbed
EV 105 mph · LA 34° · EB 2.4
05/13 vs Nationals

Luck check

Robbed 2 times — crushed balls the simulator scores as near-certain hits that died in a glove.

vs Miles MikolasOutRobbed
EV 112 mph · LA 18° · EB 2.6
05/12 vs Nationals

2 lucky hits — balls with a hit probability under 20% that found grass.

vs Cole WinnDoubleLucky
EV 89 mph · LA 32° · EB 0.3 · xBA .156
04/05 vs Rangers
How to read this chart
Dot color is estimated bases (EB) — what the contact was worth, regardless of what the defense did with it. 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 · 472 pitches

Bases he adds per 100 pitches of each type, against the league.

← below leagueabove league →
Four-Seam Fastball (142 pitches)
+1.1
Lg median −0.4Lg best +12.9
Changeup (101 pitches)
+1.7
Lg median −0.3Lg best +17.9
Curveball (74 pitches)
−1.6
Lg median +0.5Lg best +14.6
Other (155 pitches)

−1.7 bases per 100 · no single-type league comparison

Above league medianBelowMiddle half of the leagueLg medianLg best
How to read this chart
Bases added per 100 pitches of each type — the same scale as the pitcher pages’ “saved/cost per 100”, 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 the count’s expectation. Values are bases vs the league count-average: +3.5 means his results against that pitch have been worth about 3.5 extra bases per 100 seen. Types with fewer than 50 pitches seen pool into “Other”.

Earned vs. actual

Results have matched his contact quality — Will Benson has been credited about what his contact has earned so far.

Earned off his own contact34
Actually credited to him32

over 55 balls in play · walks and strikeouts excluded on both sides

How to read this chart
Every ball he puts in play is worth the bases its exit velocity and direction usually earn. Comparing those earned bases with the bases he was actually credited shows whether his results have been lucky, unlucky, or fair.

Swing

How fast he swings, and what he changes with two strikes. League tracking starts in 2024.

Swing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-08-22
Bat speed · 192 swings
72.8 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.9 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.7 mph)
Lg median

Swings about as fast as most hitters. His swing is longer than most hitters', with a steeper attack angle than most. Changes his swing less than most hitters with two strikes. His bat travels on a steeper path than most.

Attack angle
13.6°
Lg median 9.4°
Swing length
7.6 ft
Lg median 7.3 ft
Swing path tilt
37.0°
Lg median 32.4°
Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Competitive swings: bunts and checked-type swings under 50 mph are excluded, so these numbers sit a touch below the bat speeds Savant publishes, which use a different cut.
  • League tracking starts in 2024, and early 2024 has small gaps — about 93% of swings that season have a reading.
  • Swing length — how far the sweet spot of the bat travels during the swing.
  • Attack angle — the bat’s upward or downward tilt through the zone.
  • Swing path tilt — how steep the bat’s path is.
  • None of these is better or worse on its own — swing style trades power against contact (the fastest and slowest swings in the league both belong to stars).

How he sets up

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

How he sets up

Stands 26″ from the front of the box — farther up than 78% of hitters.

Top-down batting stance vs league averagePitcher ↑

Month by month this season, from his setup about a second before each pitch.

Middle half of the leagueLg median
His feetLg avg
How to read this chart
  • Overhead view of the batter’s box. The dots are his feet, reconstructed from Statcast’s stance measurements — hip position, foot separation, and stance angle — about one second before the pitch. It’s an approximation of his setup, not his stride or swing.
  • Open means his front foot is pulled off the line to the plate; closed means it steps toward it. The average hitter sets up slightly open.
  • The change line above only appears for a sustained month-over-month move that clears normal Statcast noise by a wide margin.
  • The chart is his month-by-month average for whichever measure you pick, this season only. A month needs 25 tracked swings to appear, so an injured or platooned month can be missing. The shaded band and dashed line are where the middle half of hitters, and the median hitter, sat over their whole season.
  • On the angle chart, below zero is an open stance and above zero is a closed one — hover a point (or drag on a phone) and it says which in words.
  • Data through 2026-08-22.

Best games

His biggest games this year

Best games

His best games this season by bases above replacement.

Multi-season trends · Will Benson

HR% down, BB% up, K% up, Barrel% down, Hard-hit% down, GB% down, FB% up vs last season

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