Ernie Clement has had a great season for the Toronto Blue Jays so far. His most recent, and still ongoing, seven-game hit streak has been a bright spot for the team despite getting swept by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Clement’s stats have all trended upwards this year, with his .292/.326/.416 slashline eclipsing his 2024 campaign of .263/.284/.408 by a decent margin.
It’s important to mention before diving into Statcast that Clement has been mashing left-handed pitching much better than in previous years as well, which is certainly helping his case. He holds a .412 average against the southpaws this year.
What’s interesting is that he hasn’t necessarily changed his swing much, if at all, to get to this point.
The infielder is the perfect example of a player knowing their role and sticking to it. He consistently sprays hard-hit singles and doubles out of reach of opposing infielders. His contact skills are elite. This season and the last, he’s ranked in the 90th percentile or better of all hitters when it comes to having a low whiff rate on pitches in the zone (14.5% in 2025) and strikeout percentage (11.0% in 2025). What makes his approach interesting, as alluded to earlier, is that his bat speed and chase percentage (swings on pitches out of the zone) are near the bottom of the league, both under the tenth percentile of MLB.
They’re stats go against the grain of what modern-day statisticians and projections expect a good hitter to look like. Add on top of that a barrel% (balls hit with an “optimal” launch angle) that is also in the tenth percentile, and it goes to show why baseball isn’t played on paper.
Despite his Baseball Savant page looking almost identical to his previous years, and thus not giving us much information as to why Clement has seen an uptick in performance, one much simpler reason stands out.
Looking at his slashline mentioned earlier, the 29-year-old’s OBP has jumped up nearly 40 points. Despite still ranking in the lowly tenth percentile and lower range for chasing balls out of the zone, Clement has made a noticeable improvement, dropping his number by over 5% (43.3% in 2024 to 36.7% in 2025).
His eleven walks on the year have already tied him with his 2024 number. While not a large number of walks, the noticeable uptick has in turn increased his contact hitting. If he’s able to continue his current pace and keep mashing left-handers, the utilityman with a great glove should find himself consistent play in the second half.
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