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Michael Helman

2026
Rangers· CF · bats R · throws R· 35 plate appearances

Grade

His grade shows how good he has been, and at what.
Dbetter than 31% of hitters at creating bases

He's running below his established level this season, so he has room to rebound.

Free-Swinging Contact

Bat-to-ball first, seldom walks, light power.

Soft contact is the story so far

Michael Helman keeps the strikeouts in check. He strikes out less often than 68% of qualified hitters. The contact is soft, though. Only 1% of qualified hitters hit the ball hard less often. This is an early read, on only 35 plate appearances so far.

35 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. He hasn't reached that bar himself, so he is measured against them rather than counted among them.

Plays like…

Each of these hitters shares his archetype and sits closest to him in EB/PA.

Daniel SusacGiantsBrayan RocchioGuardiansAngel GenaoGuardiansJacob WilsonAthletics

Hitter type

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

Platoon splits

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

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

He hits lefties better than righties, by 0.034 EB/PA.

50% probable range: +0.010 to +0.061

vs LHP16 PA0.430

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.430 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.397 to 0.459, based on 16 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.313 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.424 EB/PA.

His raw rate vs LHP (0.313) is off this scale. Small samples can push a raw rate this far, which is why the dot, the shrunk estimate, is the number to trust.

vs RHP19 PA0.395

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.395 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.367 to 0.424, based on 19 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.306 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.433 EB/PA.

His raw rate vs RHP (0.306) is off this scale. Small samples can push a raw rate this far, which is why the dot, the shrunk estimate, is the number to trust.

0.3560.3850.4130.4420.470
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

His split is about typical for a righty bat (median 0.035). Against righties he sits below the league median, which is a real platoon weakness.

He sits in the league's middle half vs lefties and the league's bottom quarter 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 Michael Helman put in play this season is drawn where it landed.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Will DionHome run
96 mph · 31° · worth 2.3 bases
06/07 vs Guardians
vs Tayler SaucedoDouble
82 mph · 30° · worth 1.0 bases
05/23 vs Angels
vs Jose QuintanaSingle
88 mph · 12° · worth 0.8 bases
05/18 vs Rockies
vs Antonio SenzatelaOut
68 mph · 42° · worth 0.6 bases
05/20 vs Rockies
vs Justin SlatenOut
85 mph · 32° · worth 0.5 bases
06/13 vs Red Sox

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.

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 · 58 swings
69.6 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.8 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.4 mph)
Lg median

He swings about as fast as most hitters. His swing is longer than most hitters', with a steeper attack angle than most. With two strikes, he cuts his bat speed about as much as most hitters. His bat travels on a fairly typical path.

Attack angle
12.7°
Lg median 9.6°
Swing length
7.8 ft
Lg median 7.3 ft
Swing path tilt
29.4°
Lg median 31.4°
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.
  • 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

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 · Michael Helman

Compared with last season, his HR% is down, his BB% is down and his K% is down.

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