They started slowly, but these 9 hitters are hot now

Are you a morning person? Perhaps you are raring to go from the second you jump out of bed, ready to attack the day. Kudos to you.

But then there are the rest of us who need some time -- and perhaps a cup of coffee or three -- to ease into what's to come. In the end, everything that needs to be accomplished will get done, just as soon as we clear the fog following our deep slumber.

The same principle holds on the baseball diamond. Not all players are going to be at their best right away, but with just a little bit of time, a slow start can give way to a prolonged period of prosperity. For these nine hitters, a dreary beginning to the 2023 season is now just a memory. They are wide awake at the plate, swinging a hot bat, and all pitchers better be on notice.

All stats are updated through Monday's games.

Juan Soto, Padres
Soto’s poor start to this season combined with his underwhelming introduction with San Diego in 2022 generated countless “What is wrong with Juan Soto?” think pieces.

We now have an answer: Nothing. Soto’s previous 16 games should calm any kvetching. He entered April 27 with a .178 average and a .684 OPS. Since then, he’s put together a very Soto-esque .368/.507/.684 slash line. He has been more aggressive at the plate, attacking many more pitches in the zone than during the season’s first few weeks. And when bat meets ball, Soto usually makes sharp contact. Meanwhile, his strikeout rate during this hot streak (13.7%) is about half of what it was for most of April (25.9%).

However, calling this a “hot streak” is probably a misnomer. Prior to that Aug. 2 trade to the Padres, we had four and a half years' worth of evidence suggesting that Soto might be the best hitter in baseball. A few rough months weren’t going to change that. It’s safe to say he’s back.

Luis Robert Jr., White Sox
It is a little premature to hand out AL Player of the Month honors for May, but Robert has a heck of an advantage as we cross the halfway point. No player in either league has a higher average (.422), slugging percentage (.933) or wRC+ (283) this month. He tried to beat the Astros singlehandedly this past weekend, going deep and logging multiple hits in each of those three games.

It’s a stark turnaround from April, when Robert slashed .215/.254/.407 with a 28.7% K rate. He recorded eight barrels in 76 batted ball events through the season’s first month. Midway through the second month, he already has eight barrels – no player has more during May – in just 34 batted ball events.

Masataka Yoshida, Red Sox
Yoshida’s first 13 games in the big leagues had some positives, headlined by his fantastic plate discipline; he registered eight walks and only five strikeouts through his first 58 plate appearances. But Yoshida didn’t receive the largest contract ever for a position player coming from Japan just because of his ability to take a walk. He was also brought in to add some thump to Boston’s lineup after averaging more than 20 homers per year over his last five seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Through April 19, Yoshida had just one homer and two extra-base hits. But he has been the Red Sox’s best offensive performer since, with five dingers, 11 extra-base hits and a .374 average through 83 at-bats. What has clicked for Yoshida? That question is answered in detail here.

Javier Báez, Tigers
Through April 12, Báez had the lowest wRC+ of any qualified hitter in the Majors. And then things got somehow worse when he was benched during the following day’s game after committing a baserunning blunder.

Did this serve as a wake-up call for the talented shortstop? It seems like it. He collected a hit in nine consecutive games immediately after the incident. Through 25 games since his mistake, he has raised his average 132 points and upped his OPS 346 points. That span also includes 17 RBIs and only 17 strikeouts.

That last number is of particular note for Báez, who rarely sees a pitch that he doesn’t think he can drive. He still chases out of the zone often, but thanks to a huge jump in his contact rates, Báez's strikeout percentage – which ranked in the 26th percentile or lower in each season from 2016-22 – is now in the 80th percentile.

Salvador Perez, Royals
Perez has dealt with bouts of blurry vision over the past few years, and a recurrence forced him to sit out two games last week. But that didn’t interrupt his month-long heater when he returned to the lineup Saturday and smashed a ball 433 feet in his first at-bat.

After going deep twice over his first 13 games, Perez has homered seven times since April 15 and posted a .333/.383/.625 slash line over that 25-game stretch. Vision issues or not, he has been squaring up baseballs throughout May, leading to an MLB-best 71.4% hard-hit rate this month. On May 7, Perez walloped a 99.9 mph fastball 462 feet for his longest home run during the Statcast Era (since 2015).

Ozzie Albies, Braves
On the same day Perez began to get into gear, Albies recorded three hits and four RBIs at Kansas City. That would signal the end of his early-season slump, which included a .214 average and a .559 OPS through the first 14 games. From that point, Albies leads all hitters in extra-base hits (18) and is tied atop the home run leaderboard with eight. His .617 slugging percentage trails only the Royals’ captain.

The diminutive Albies is now on pace for 40 homers, which would shatter a unique record that he set in 2021.

Anthony Santander, Orioles
The Orioles have been one of the best teams in baseball despite not getting much in the power department for the majority of this season from their 2022 home run leader. But Santander has surged over the past few weeks, clobbering five homers with a .339 average and a 1.067 OPS since April 27. His numbers in those respective categories through his first 25 contests: one, .205, .599. After the switch-hitter had four multihit performances over the season’s first month, he opened May with a streak of six consecutive such games, the longest run by an Oriole since 2020.

Coming off a 33-homer campaign, Santander has a 193 wRC+ over his previous 16 games. The Orioles will need his bat to stay lethal as they try to keep pace with the Rays in the unforgiving AL East.

Josh Bell, Guardians
Bell is no stranger to stumbling out of the gate. Although 2022 was an exception, his production is typically modest in March and April. He has 18 homers in 509 at-bats, and his career .762 OPS during those early months is better than only his totals in September and October combined. That being said, his start to 2023 was especially frigid: 3-for-38, zero extra-base hits and 13 K’s.

However, even as Cleveland’s offense has yet to find its groove, Bell has done his part over his previous 27 games, registering a healthy .280/.385/.462 line with a team-high 11 extra-base hits. His 139 wRC+ during this period easily surpasses José Ramírez’s 111, which is second best on the club.

Bell is an extremely streaky hitter, but his elite 15.2% walk rate should help keep him from reaching a statistical abyss like the one he went through in early April.

Christian Walker, D-backs
Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. each have strong arguments for this final entry, but we’ll give the spotlight to a teammate who has the third-best slugging percentage in MLB (.635) since April 16. No player tops Walker’s seven home runs over the past month, and six of those clouts came in an eight-game span that ended on May 8, when Walker blasted a ball 459 feet. That 114.3 mph shot stands as his second-hardest-hit ball during the Statcast Era, and Walker is now on course for another season with 30-plus taters. The first 14 games of his year, complete with a .173/.211/.308 slash line, are a mere footnote now.