Front-office executives and scouts most all agree that the Brewers, Rays, Dodgers and Guardians have arguably the best analytics departments in all of MLB. Partly for that reason, those are the four teams still alive in the playoffs and playing for the right to advance to the World Series.

Analytics are here to stay, regardless of what old-school baseball fans think about them. Why wouldn’t teams embrace tools that can largely predict results before they happen? Why wouldn’t they use those tools to help their hitters figure out which pitches are coming next or help pitchers determine the best ways to attack opposing offenses?

COME ON NOW pic.twitter.com/sagPeZ4AMv

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 15, 2026

The St. Louis Cardinals have certainly adopted such thinking, using advanced analytics to predict long-term outcomes for young prospects and analytics to help them from game to game against dramatically different pitchers.

Sticking with the analytics theme, let’s go inside the box scores and delve deeper than batting averages, home run totals and the number of runs batted in by each player. Swing-and-miss analytics, walk frequencies and hard-hit rates can tell a lot more about hitters than simplistic stats.   

Here is a look at a variety of advanced offensive metrics and where those players rank on the Cardinals among MLB’s top 100 qualified hitters:

Walk rate

Ivan Herrera 10.6%

JJ Wetherholt 10.3%

Masyn Winn 9.0%

Alec Burleson 8.2%

Jordan Walker 7.5%

Note: Herrera’s walk rate ranked in MLB’s 71st percentile in 2026.

Barrel rate

Jordan Walker 13.2%

Alec Burleson 11.3%

JJ Wetherholt 7.4%

Ivan Herrera 6.2%

Masyn Winn 3.3%

Note: Walker’s barrel rate ranked No. 17 in MLB this season. His barrel rate has climbed each year in the big leagues, going from 7.5% in 2023 to 9.5% in 2024 to 10.9% in 2025 and 13.2% in 2026.

Hard-hit rate (95+ mph exit velocity)

Alec Burleson 50%

Jordan Walker 49.9%

Ivan Herrera 40.6%

Masyn Winn 34.9%

Note: Burleson’s hard-hit rate paved the way for his best season in the big leagues. Also, his hard-hit rate has climbed three straight years, going from 41.7% in 2023 to 43 percent in 2025 to 50 percent this past season.

Strikeout rate

Jordan Walker 26.1%

Masyn Winn 21.8%     

Ivan Herrera 19.2%

Alec Burleson 18.1%

JJ Wetherholt 16.8%

Note: Much of Wetherholt’s success as a rookie centered around his lack of chase (94th percentile) and his avoiding strikeouts (77th percentile) with his solid two-strike approach.

Whiff (swing-and-miss) rate

Jordan Walker 32.3%

Masyn Winn 23.7%

Alec Burleson 22.5%

Ivan Herrera 20.8%

JJ Wetherholt 20.2%

Note: Winn could be on the verge of winning a second straight Gold Glove at shortstop, but his offensive numbers continue to trend in the wrong direction. His hits (157, 124, 109), doubles (32, 27, 21) and homers (15, nine, five) declined a third straight season.

Swing rate

Alec Burleson 53.6%

Jordan Walker 52.1%

Ivan Herrera 44.2%

JJ Wetherholt 42%

Masyn Winn 41.2%

Note: Burleson (37 doubles, 26 homers, 116 RBI) and Walker (29 homers, 33 doubles and 102 RBI) use two totally different kinds of swings to pile up numbers. Burleson’s 73.8 mph swing ranks in MLB’s 69th percentile, while no one swings harder than Walker’s 79.3 mph average swing speed.