Divergent Exit Velo Trends Help Explain Why Kyle Tucker Should Be Improvement Over Cody Bellinger

First things first, I’m operating under the assumption that Cody Bellinger is eventually traded and that Kyle Tucker then serves as a replacement/upgrade. There’s always the possibility that both are in Chicago for at least the first half of the 2025 season, in which case we don’t really need to compare them. But for the time being, we’re looking at how the two left-handed hitters differ in terms of their batted-ball results.

As simple as it would be to look at their stats and see how a guy who put up 4.2 fWAR in just 339 plate appearances is better than someone who generated 2.2 fWAR in 569 PAs, I want to dig deeper. Both Tucker and Bellinger struck out at less than a 16% clip and both had…