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CJ Kayfus

2026
Guardians· LF · bats L · throws L· 25 PA

Grade

How good he's been, and at what
Bbetter than 65% of hitters at creating bases

His season is in line with his established level.

Aggressive Power

Big pop, rarely takes a walk.

Strikeouts are holding this bat back

CJ Kayfus creates bases at a better-than-most clip — better than 65% of qualified hitters. The strikeouts pile up, though — only 20% of qualified hitters whiff more often. Early-season read — only 25 plate appearances so far.

25 plate appearances · data through 2026-09-11.

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. The middle ring marks the league median and the outer ring the league best. Percentiles vs. 519 qualified hitters — 50+ plate appearances. He hasn't reached that bar himself, so he is measured against them rather than counted among them.

Plays like…

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

Jeremy PeñaAstrosBrett BatyMetsWilly AdamesGiantsEduardo ValenciaTigers

Hitter type

What kind of hitter he is, next to the league

Platoon splits

How he fares against lefties and righties

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

Better vs RHP than vs LHP by 0.081 EB/PA (modeled).

50% probable range: +0.056 to +0.106

vs LHP3 PA0.392

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.392 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.359 to 0.423, based on 3 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.013 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.426 EB/PA.

Raw vs LHP rate (0.013) 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 RHP22 PA0.474

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.474 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.446 to 0.500, based on 22 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.461 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.435 EB/PA.

0.3430.3860.4300.4740.517
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

About the typical split for a lefty bat (median 0.078). Against lefties he sits below the league median — a genuine platoon vulnerability.

He sits in the league's middle half vs both lefties and 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 simulator 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 up the middle most often, but does his most damage to the opposite field.

Best batted balls

Where every ball CJ Kayfus put in play landed this season.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Jacob WebbHome run
EV 105 mph · LA 35° · EB 3.8
04/05 vs Cubs
vs Lucas ErcegOut
EV 100 mph · LA 28° · EB 1.2
04/06 vs Royals
vs Ben BrownSingle
EV 97 mph · LA 12° · EB 1.0
04/05 vs Cubs
vs Edward CabreraDouble
EV 90 mph · LA 32° · EB 0.3
04/05 vs Cubs
vs John SchreiberSingle
EV 104 mph · LA -9° · EB 0.2
04/07 vs Royals

Luck check

1 lucky hit — a ball with a hit probability under 20% that found grass.

vs Edward CabreraDoubleLucky
EV 90 mph · LA 32° · EB 0.3 · xBA .117
04/05 vs Cubs
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.

Swing

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

Swing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-09-11
Bat speed · 53 swings
69.7 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.8 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.5 mph)
Lg median

Swings about as fast as most hitters. His swing is shorter than most hitters', with a typical attack angle. Cuts his swing down about as much as most hitters with two strikes. His bat travels on a steeper path than most.

Attack angle
12.3°
Lg median 9.6°
Swing length
6.6 ft
Lg median 7.3 ft
Swing path tilt
36.3°
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).

Best games

His biggest games this year

Best games

His best games this season by bases above replacement.

Multi-season trends · CJ Kayfus

HR% up, K% up vs last season

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