Blue Jays: The proof is in the exit speed for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

There’s no doubt that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is starting to heat up and the biggest sign may be how hard he’s been hitting the ball lately, which has been pretty jaw-dropping.

We knew that Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s struggles weren’t going to last forever, and it wasn’t just because he’s been the most hyped prospect in franchise history. The proof has been there, even when his batting average had dipped to .146 on May 10th, not that long ago.

In my mind, the most positive sign through his early struggles was how hard he was hitting the ball when he was making contact, even if they turned into outs. We saw it right from his first game, as he made solid contact in his second and third at-bats, only to fly out. However, that paled in comparison to some of the lasers he’s hit more recently.

In fact, according to the statcast leaders for exit velocity over at mlb.com, Vlad Jr. has already hit the second hardest ball in all of baseball this year, trailing only Giancarlo Stanton. Guerrero Jr’s hardest hit ball (in play) registered at 118.9 miles per hour, while Stanton slightly edged him at 120.6. It hasn’t been a one-time thing for Vlad Jr. either, as he also owns the #11 spot on the list as well with a 115.5 mph stroke as well.

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According to a tweet from Ben Nicholson-Smith on Tuesday, the 20-year-old also hit a foul ball that registered at 120 mph. Just as Nicholson-Smith said, “no one does that”, especially someone who is just barely old enough to be considered an adult. And while we’re on the topic of his youth, he became the youngest player in franchise history to hit a home run the other night as well, and then followed it up with his second of the evening later on.

His multi-homer game may have announced that he’s (hopefully) ready to start terrorizing the league, but even when he wasn’t making the best of contact he was still hitting the ball reasonably hard. Right now his average exit velocity is at 91.0 mph, which best the MLB average of 87.4. The even more interesting part is that according to baseballsavant.com, he’s only “barrelled” four out of 42 batted balls so far. Even as he’s adjusting the highest level and struggled at the dish until more recently, he’s still been putting a pretty good piece of lumber on the ball.

Sure, he’s gone 0-7 since that breakout night, but the Canadian-born phenom has already given us a taste of what he can do, and I’m confident it was just the beginning of what he’ll show us in his rookie season. A lot of the advanced data tells us that he’ll do just that, and so do our eyes and ears. This kid hits the ball very, very hard.