Juan Lagares’s launch angle is down, so what’s up?

After working over the offseason to join the launch angle revolution, Juan Lagares is off to a blazing start this year, hitting .379 with a .424 OBP in his first 33 plate appearances. But if you want to know why, you have to look past launch angle. In fact, you’re better off not looking at launch angle at all.

Despite the new swing we heard about this winter, Lagares’s launch angle hasn’t gone up so far. His average sits at 7.47 degrees so far this year, lower than his 12.3 degrees and 8.5 degrees of 2016 and 2017, respectively.

So where is his success coming from through 29 at-bats this season? No metric stands out as a clear improvement, but a few stats do indicate areas in which he may be…