When the Boston Red Sox added J.D Martinez over the winter, Yankees fans said “So what? We’ve got Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton!” And that’s true. But so far, through the 2018 season, no one has hit the ball harder than Martinez.
Yeah, I know what you’re saying, Yankees fans. Judge has a higher average exit velocity at 95.8 MPH. But Martinez is just 0.7 MPH back from that rate, and he’s got a whole lot more on his side.
To begin with, we can look at hard-hit percentages. Both Baseball Savant and Fangraphs display it on their player pages.