{"id":198183,"date":"2025-10-08T18:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/198183\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T18:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:49:08","slug":"who-are-the-fastest-runners-in-the-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/198183\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the fastest runners in the MLB?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the recent Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees matchups, Canadian baseball fans are buzzing. But as we watched the Jays dart around the bases, we can\u2019t help but wonder:\u00a0how fast are these guys, really?<\/p>\n

According to MLB Statcast<\/a> data (with stats as recent as late July 2025), player speed isn\u2019t so straightforward to evaluate. It\u2019s actually measured across six different metrics, tracking everything from how fast a player accelerates out of the batter\u2019s box to their top speed reached in a full sprint.<\/p>\n

\"ByronByron Buxton playing for the Twins at Orioles 2015. Photo: Keith Allison
\n1. Sprint speed<\/p>\n

The first metric looks at the players\u2019 fastest one-second window of all-out running. The league average is about 8.22 m\/s, while anything faster than 9.14 m\/s is considered elite.<\/p>\n

9.23 m\/s \u2013 Bobby Witt, Jr. (Kansas City Royals)
\n9.23 m\/s \u2013 Trea Turner (Philadelphia Phillies)
\n9.20 m\/s \u2013 Byron Buxton (Minnesota Twins)
\n9.20 m\/s \u2013 Victor Scott II (St. Louis Cardinals)
\n9.17 m\/s \u2013 Johan Rojas (Philadelphia Phillies)
\n9.11 m\/s \u2013 Chandler Simpson (Tampa Bay Rays)
\n9.11 m\/s \u2013 Brandon Lockridge (San Diego Padres)
\n9.11 m\/s \u2013 Eli White (Atlanta Braves)<\/p>\n

For comparison, while setting his 100m world record (9.58 seconds) in 2009, Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt\u00a0reached a top speed of 12.42 m\/s.<\/p>\n

2. Home-to-first time<\/p>\n

This area measures the time it takes for a batter to reach first base after making contact with the ball. (Shoutout to Toronto\u2019s Myles Straw for cracking the top eight.)<\/p>\n

3.95 seconds \u2013 Chandler Simpson (Tampa Bay Rays)
\n4.03 seconds \u2013 David Hamilton (Boston Red Sox)
\n4.06 seconds \u2013 Jake Mangum (Tampa Bay Rays)
\n4.08 seconds \u2013 Hyeseong Kim (L.A. Dodgers)
\n4.08 seconds \u2013 Cody Bellinger (N.Y. Yankees)
\n4.11 seconds \u2013 Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks)
\n4.12 seconds \u2013 Byron Buxton (Minnesota Twins)
\n4.12 seconds \u2013 Myles Straw (Toronto Blue Jays)<\/p>\n

3. 90-foot splits<\/p>\n

A \u201c90-foot split\u201d starts when the batter takes their first step toward first base, and analyzes the time it takes to run 90 ft. (27.4m) to first base. (This removes any swing or stance advantages between right- and left-handed batters, since right-handed batters are slightly further from first base).<\/p>\n

3.67 seconds \u2013 Chandler Simpson (Tampa Bay Rays)
\n3.71 seconds \u2013 Victor Scott II (St. Louis Cardinals)
\n3.72 seconds \u2013 Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks)
\n3.73 seconds \u2013 John Rave (Kansas City Royals)
\n3.74 seconds \u2013 Pete Crow-Armstrong (Chicago Clubs)
\n3.75 seconds \u2013 DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (Minnesota Twins)<\/p>\n

\"ChandlerChandler Simpson attempting to steal third base for the Durham Bulls during a game at Werner Park on June 20, 2025. Photo: Minda Haas Kuhlmann
\n4. Burst<\/p>\n

Like in track, reaction time and acceleration are crucial for top performances. The \u201cburst\u201d metric looks at the distance covered in the first 1.5 seconds after leaving the batter\u2019s box. (Another shoutout to Jonatan Clase, who represents the Jays in the top eight.)<\/p>\n

10.18 m \u2013 Chandler Simpson (Tampa Bay Rays)
\n10.03 m \u2013 Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks)
\n10.03 m \u2013 John Rave (Kansas City Royals)
\n10.00 m \u2013 Victor Scott II (St. Louis Cardinals)
\n9.97 m \u2013 Pete Crow-Armstrong (Chicago Clubs)
\n9.94 m \u2013 DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (Minnesota Twins)
\n9.88 m \u2013 Jacob Melton (Houston Astros)
\n9.88 m \u2013 Jonatan Clase (Toronto Blue Jays)<\/p>\n

5. Home-to-home time<\/p>\n

This one is self-explanatory, measuring the time it takes to circle all four bases\u2013about 122m in total. The stats look at only inside-the-park home runs (which are rare), since most home runs are hit outside the park, meaning players don\u2019t need to run at full speed around the bases. Here are the fastest home-to-home times since 2015:<\/p>\n

13.85 seconds \u2013 Byron Buxton, 8\/18\/17
\n14.05 seconds \u2013 Buxton, 10\/2\/16
\n14.08 seconds \u2013 Pete Crow-Armstrong, 8\/23\/24
\n14.20 seconds \u2013 Corbin Carroll, 8\/27\/23
\n14.24 seconds \u2013 Dee Strange-Gordon, 6\/30\/15
\n14.29 seconds \u2013 Bobby Witt Jr., 8\/14\/23
\n14.32 seconds \u2013 Carroll, 8\/31\/24<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to compare these performances to Bolt\u2019s (who has run 150m in 14.35 seconds<\/a>), since the sand\/clay\/dirt surface is much more slippery and the turns are much tighter. But all things considered\u2013these times are quick.<\/p>\n

\"VICTORVictor Scott II on base for the St. Louis Cardinals during a game at Busch Stadium on August 28, 2024. Photo: John Max Mena\/WC
\n6. Bolts<\/p>\n

Lastly, baseball players are evaluated based on how often they reach the elite speed of 9.14 m\/s during their all-out runs. Here are the stats over a minimum of 50 competitive runs.<\/p>\n

57 per cent \u2013 Victor Scott II
\n48 per cent \u2013 Johan Rojas
\n44 per cent\u2013 Trea Turner
\n43 per cent \u2013 Bobby Witt Jr.
\n39 per cent\u2013 Chandler Simpson
\n38 per cent \u2013 Byron Buxton<\/p>\n

When it comes to evaluating speed across all metrics, a few names consistently rise to the top. Overall, Victor Scott II, Bobby Witt Jr., Trea Turner, Chandler Simpson, Corbin Carroll and Byron Buxton are undoubtedly the league\u2019s fastest players, combining explosive first steps, impressive acceleration and elite top-end speed. No, they are no Bolt, but it would be interesting to see how these athletes perform when put to the test on a track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the recent Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees matchups, Canadian baseball fans are buzzing. But as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[3307,49,48,98069,462,82,98070],"class_list":["post-198183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fastest-baseball-players","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-usain-bolt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}