Since making his Major League debut with the Houston Astros during the 2014 season, George Springer has been one of the best outfielders in all of Major League Baseball, combining excellent plate discipline with above-average power and center field defense throughout his professional career. Over the past couple of years, however, Springer experienced a bit of decline as he’s gotten deeper into his 30s, providing less defensive value with a move to right field and declining power output, culminating in a 94 wRC+ last season. This season, Springer has experienced a complete resurgence in offensive production, currently producing a career-high 161 wRC+, which has made him an integral piece of Toronto’s lineup this season. This article will take a look at Springer’s bounce-back season, examine the adjustments he has made to his offensive approach, and attempt to prognosticate how well Springer’s offensive profile will age moving forward.
As mentioned earlier, Springer experienced a sharp decline in offensive production over the past two seasons. In 2023, Springer produced a 103 wRC+ over 683 plate appearances, while in 2024, Springer produced a 94 wRC+ over 614 plate appearances, both career lows. While Springer was still able to maintain his ability to draw walks and minimize his strikeouts, his decline in offensive production was largely driven by a decline in power output, with his .147 ISO in 2023 and .150 ISO in 2024 both ranking as career lows. Combining this decline in offensive production with a move to right field, reducing Springer’s defensive value, it appeared before the 2025 season that Springer was moving quickly along the aging curve, with most projection systems forecasting a 1.5-2.0 fWAR season for Springer in 2025. However, Springer made a couple of notable adjustments to his offensive approach that allowed him to stave off the aging curve and achieve a career-high level of offensive production in 2025.
The first notable adjustment that Springer made to his offensive approach this season is that he has displayed more patience with his swing decisions. As mentioned before, the calling card of Springer’s offensive profile throughout his career has been his ability to make good swing decisions, and this assessment is backed up by Decision+, which has consistently graded Springer’s swing decision ability as among the best in the league over the past three seasons. This season, Springer further increased his patience at the plate, lowering his chase rate from 23.5% in 2024 to 20.6% in 2025. Springer has also become more selective on pitches located in the strike zone, lowering his zone-swing rate from 73.0% in 2024 to 71.3% in 2025.
This increase in patience on pitches located outside of the strike zone has allowed for Springer to increase his walk rate from 9.8% in 2024 to 11.7% in 2025, further increasing his on-base ability. Springer’s ability to become more selective on pitches inside the strike zone has perhaps contributed to his 3-point decline year-to-year in Decision+; however, this improved selectivity has likely allowed Springer to swing more frequently at pitches he can drive for damage, improving his contact quality in the process.
In addition to the improved discipline at the plate, Springer has dramatically improved his batted ball quality this season, leading to his resurgence in offensive output. Over the past couple of seasons, Springer has displayed league-average EV50 and Air% values that led to, fittingly, league-average results, with Springer producing a 7.7% barrel rate in 2023 and a 9.3% barrel rate in 2024. Hitting the ball hard and at optimal launch angles, as measured by barrel rate, is a good recipe for generating power output, and these barrel rates he produced over the past two seasons were a decline from the double-digit barrel rates Springer was able to produce during his tenure in Houston and in his first season with Toronto. This season, Springer has been hitting the ball harder, with his EV50 increasing from 99.9 in 2024 to 102.3 in 2025, and in the air more frequently, with his Air% increasing from 50.2% in 2024 to 61.9% in 2025, resulting in Springer producing a career-high 16.1% barrel rate this season. In addition, Springer has also been pulling the ball in the air more frequently this season, with his Pull Air% increasing from 14.6% in 2024 to 18.6% in 2025, further maximizing his offensive production on batted balls.
How has Springer achieved this dramatic improvement in batted ball quality? Statcast’s bat tracking and swing path metrics can provide us with some insight into the adjustments that Springer has made to increase his offensive production so far this season. As shown by the table above, it appears that Springer underwent targeted training for improving his bat speed over the offseason, as his average bat speed increased from 71.9 MPH in 2024 to 73.6 MPH in 2025. Exit velocity is largely generated through a combination of bat speed and collision efficiency, and this 1.7 MPH increase in bat speed has resulted in Springer’s ability to hit the ball harder this season, despite a slight decrease in squared-up rate.
Springer has also displayed a steeper swing this season, increasing his swing path tilt from 34 to 35 degrees, and is making contact with the baseball with his bat at a more upward angle, with his attack angle increasing from 11 to 13 degrees. Possessing a steeper swing allows for Springer to hit the ball in the air more often, explaining his increase in Air%, and resulting in more power production this season. Possessing a steep swing with above-average bat speed is one of the best swings for a player to possess at the Major League level, due to the swing’s ability to produce high barrel rates, and these adjustments have allowed for Springer to unlock a significant amount of untapped power potential during his age-35 season.
Overall, George Springer’s 2025 season has been one of the most impressive bounceback seasons in recent memory, and what makes it more impressive is that it has been due to the result of underlying changes to his offensive approach, rather than simply experiencing positive “batted ball luck”. While Springer’s .332 BABIP is a bit high relative to his .297 BABIP career-average, his .415 xwOBA is in-line with his .403 wOBA, indicating that Springer’s observed production is aligned with his expected results.
While Springer’s improved batted ball quality has been a major factor in his increase in offensive production this season, this increase in hard-hit ability runs counter to the steep negative aging curve for bat speed that is present after a player’s age-31 season. In addition to the steep drop-off after age 31, there is a second steep drop-off after age 35, which will affect Springer as he just recently turned 36 years old. While the increase in bat speed has allowed for Springer to improve his batted ball quality and stave off the aging curve this season, it appears very likely that he will experience a regression in bat speed to his previous levels next season. While bat speed ages poorly, swing decision ability typically ages well, and I believe that Springer’s elite ability to make good swing decisions should allow him to generate at least average offensive production next season, depending on how much his bat speed regresses.
George Springer’s 2025 season has been a reminder of just how he can be one of the most impactful players in all of Major League Baseball. By making targeted adjustments to his swing and approach, he has been able to unlock a level of production that very few expected heading into this season. While regression is likely as he moves deeper into his 30s, Springer’s elite plate discipline should allow him to continue providing value to Toronto’s lineup in the last year of his contract next season, even if his current level of production proves difficult to sustain.
Statistics as of the end of play on September 16th, 2025.
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