Austin Hays

2026

White Sox· LF · bats R · throws R· 44 PA

Grade

How good he's been, and at what

D32nd percentile contact quality

Still Searching

Below league average across the board.

A free swinger who rarely walks

Austin Hays makes solid contact more often than 64% of qualified hitters. Walks are scarce, though — only 10% of qualified hitters draw them less often. Early-season read — only 44 plate appearances so far.

Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size — not raw season stats — so farther out = better.
Percentiles vs. 473 qualified hitters — 50+ plate appearances. He hasn't reached that bar himself, so he is measured against them rather than counted among them.
44 plate appearances · data through 2026-07-29.

Plays like…

Same archetype, nearest by rate — the hitters whose profile looks most like this one.

Tyler CallihanPirates

Adolis GarcíaPhillies

Jorge MateoBraves

Henry DavisPirates

Hitter type

What kind of hitter he is, next to the league

Hitter type

Two skills separate hitting styles: not giving away at-bats (walk rate minus strikeout rate, right = better) and squaring the ball up when he does put it in play (hard-hit rate, up = better).
Every dot is a qualified hitter this season; dot size tracks plate appearances. Click any dot to open that hitter's page.
Dashed lines mark the league median on each skill.

Very free-swinging hitter with elite contact quality.

	Austin Hays	League	Percentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better)	.532	.512	32nd
Walk rate(higher = better)	2%	8%	10th
Strikeout rate(fewer = better)	30%	23%	29th

100th percentile = best in MLB.

Platoon splits

How he fares against lefties and righties

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

Dot = shrunk true-talent estimate; bar = 50% probable range. Tap or hover any mark for its number, or tab to a row for all of them.
Faint diamond = his raw, unshrunk rate against that hand — small samples make it noisy, which is why the model pulls the dot toward a more trustworthy estimate.
Gray tick (marked “lg”) = league median vs that hand; the faint gray band behind it spans the middle half of the league (25th–75th percentile).
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.

vs LHP13 PA0.419

Raw vs LHP rate (0.483) 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 RHP31 PA0.383

0.3430.3720.4020.4310.460

← worsebetter (more bases) →

Better vs LHP than vs RHP by 0.036 EB/PA (modeled).

50% probable range: +0.025 to +0.048

About the typical split for a righty bat (median 0.035). He sits below the league median against both hands.

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

How he hits

What happens when he puts a ball in play

He hits the ball to the pull side most often, but does his most damage to the opposite field.

Best batted balls

Where every ball Austin Hays put in play landed this season.
Dots are colored by estimated bases (EB) — pale slate (easy out) to dark teal (home-run territory).
Filled dots are hits; hollow rings are outs — a dark ring in the outfield is a crushed ball that got caught.
Tap or hover a dot or a row to link the two; use the ▶ links below to watch on Baseball Savant.

Best games

His biggest games this year

Best games

His best games this season by bases above replacement.

Date	Opponent	Result	Total bases	Above replacement
May 1, 2026	Padres	1-4	2.8	+1.3
Mar 30, 2026	Marlins	1-5 · HR	2.7	+0.9
Mar 28, 2026	Brewers	1-2 · 2B	1.6	+0.8
Apr 5, 2026	Blue Jays	1-4	2.1	+0.7
Apr 4, 2026	Blue Jays	1-3 · BB	1.8	+0.3