Absurd Addison Barger nugget makes Blue Jays' mythology grow even further

Addison Barger's 2025 season is becoming something you really have to see to believe. At 25-years-old, he's been the missing ingredient the Toronto Blue Jays didn't know they needed until he started providing it. He's slashing .272/.325/.521 with an OPS of .846 and an OPS+ of 129.

Everything he hits, he hits hard, with 14 home runs on the season, doubling his out put from his 69 game appearance during his rookie campaign a year ago. But it's not just the balls going over the wall that he is mashing, he's also barreling the baseball. His barrel % is in the 86th percentile while his hard hit rate is in the 95th percentile and his average exit velocity is in the 94th percentile at 93.2 mph.

The sweep of the Giants this past weekend has been Barger's season in a nutshell. He had six hits during the three games and the slowest batted ball came off the bat at 88.7 mph - a single to left off Justin Verlander. He then had a career high four hits the next day; single (102.1 mph), single (108.3 mph), double (98.7 mph) and single (105.5 mph). The home run he hit on Sunday left the bat at 107.9 mph.

Doing all this while having a plus arm just feels like a bonus at this point as the Blue Jays can utilize his cannon either at the hot corner, or in the outfield, with his arm strength rated in the 100th percentile. He's doing all this from the left side of the plate - but a recent story popped up over the weekend that sparked some interest around Blue Jays social media.

It's not enough for Barger to be this good at smashing the balls from the left side of the plate, but in practice he can do it from his non-natural side as well. According to Sportsnet's Blake Murphy, Blue Jays play-by-play broadcaster Dan Schulman told a story that Barger smashed balls that went 115 mph, while swinging from the right side.

Only 25 hits in baseball this season have been hit harder than that, and that is being done by players hitting from their natural side / are full-time switch hitters. While it's not the same as doing it against a pitcher in a live game, at the MLB level, the Trajekt technology is a pitching machine which is meant to mimic the release and spin of opposing pitchers. Again, it's one thing for him to do it practice, but he also doesn't go up to the plate hitting from the right side.

It just shows how much natural talent Barger has, to be able to pull off numbers like that. The lefty-swinging sixth round draft pick from 2018 is beginning to build himself as a true fan favourite and his sophomore season could go down in Blue Jays lore as one of those 'where were you when' type years, depending on how the rest of the summer, and hopefully the fall, plays out for the Blue Jays. This story will only add to his growing fandom.