Xavier Edwards Is Swinging His Way Right to the All-Star Game

I am not sure what got into Miami Marlins second baseman Xavier Edwards this season, but, boy, is he up to something.

Prior to being traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2019, Edwards had just finished his second season in the Padres farm system. It was a season in which he hit .322/.375/.396 with one singular home run, 34 stolen bases, and a 122 wRC+ in 123 games played across Single-A and High-A.

X then spent two seasons with the Rays, two years which he spent under the tutelage of Peter Bendix, and was producing similar numbers to those he did with the Padres prior. Neither the walk nor strikeout rates were ever elevated until his final season with Triple-A Durham.

Looking back at it now, the trade that sent Edwards to Miami is laughable.

On November 15, 2022, the two teams agreed to terms where Miami would send minor league pitchers Marcus Johnson and Santiago Suarez to the Rays for Edwards and relief pitcher JT Chargois. What becomes interesting is that this trade would predate the Peter Bendix hire in Miami.

At this point, it doesn’t really matter. Edwards is now proving to be one of the best hitters in baseball.

Entering Friday, May 22, Edwards is slashing .316/.395/.484 with six home runs and six stolen bases, he’s walking more than he’s striking out (11.6% walk rate to an 11.1% strikeout rate), and his wRC+ of 149 is among the best in the National League.

His .317 average sits second on the team behind the league leader, Otto Lopez, and ranks 10th overall in all of baseball.

The high batting average shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been following Edwards back to when he was a Padres prospect.

The switch-hitting middle infielder has always posted high contact rates that. Outside of the 2022 season in which he averaged a 82.6% contact rate, it had never fallen below 85.7% in any year in the minors.

Then, as he began his major league career, he has been able to manage a contact rate in the mid-to-high 80s consistently.

So, what’s clicked for him to where he is now becoming a full-length segment on the national networks? Let’s break it down.

A Brand-New Hitter

If you have been watching Xavier Edwards this season (which, if you aren’t, shame on you), you would quickly realize that he is impacting the ball a lot harder than he has in his career. That includes going back to when the minor leagues started collecting batted ball data.

Edwards’ hard-hit rate is up to 36%, which is by far the highest mark of his career and is nearly a seven percent jump from a season ago.

Then you take a look at the barrel percentage over the last few seasons, and you can tell that it isn’t a fluke. His mark this year sits at 6.7%; he has never posted a barrel rate above two percent in any season prior to 2026.

Edwards isn’t solely hitting the ball hard into the ground. In fact, his 43.9% ground-ball rate, if the season ended today, would be the lowest mark of his career. His home run-to-flyball rate is also at an astronomically high 10.0% clip.  

Next, I want to take a look at his career splits, specifically as a right-handed hitter against left-handed pitching.

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Coming into the season, X had a career .262 batting average, zero home runs, and an overall slugging percentage of .300 against lefties. In just 2026 alone, Edwards is slashing .340/.404/.617 with four home runs. Considering he has six total homers on the season, I would say that is quite impressive.

This next part might not weigh heavily to some, given that he is a switch-hitter, but if you pay attention to his at-bats, you would know that Edwards has incredible bat control on both sides of the plate. And, with that being the case, he can spray the ball to all parts of the field. 

Not impressed? Well, just take one glance at his Baseball Savant page, and you’ll see a sea of red. It’s impressive for someone who was never truly perceived to be an advanced hitter, especially not at the level at which he has performed so far this season.

I also do want to highlight the bat speed ranking in the seventh percentile of baseball. If that doesn’t prove to you that you do not need elite bat speed to be a good hitter, then I do not know what else to tell you.

Then, if you were to do a pitch-by-pitch breakdown of how he performs against each pitch, the only one without a positive run value would be the curveball.

What I do not understand is why a pitcher would throw him a single fastball for the rest of the season. Against four-seamers, Edwards has a run value of +9, a mark that is the fourth highest in MLB against the pitch type.

For a quick reference, Edwards had a -9 run value against four-seamers last season, was in the bottom 10 of MLB against the pitch type. A turnaround of that degree is simply incredible and a testament to the work he put in this offseason.

In terms of swing decisions, his 38.9% swing percentage would be the lowest of his career by almost eight percent. Pair that with a whiff rate of just 14.9% and a zone contact rate nearing 93%, and the patience and selectivity paired with his bat-to-ball skills are paying dividends for his success this year.  

The last thing I want to say about Edwards is this: Prior to the 2026 season, he had never posted an OPS+ above 95. As of the writing of this article, his current OPS+ sits at 149. Pair that OPS surge with the fact that he has drawn more walks than strikeouts, and he’s been the complete package at the plate for Miami.

Edwards’ All-Star Case

I do not think there needs to be a case made at all for Xavier Edwards to be named the starting second baseman at this year’s All-Star Game, but I will go ahead and provide the facts.

Among qualified NL second basemen, Edwards ranks fourth in average, second in on-base percentage, fourth in slugging percentage, tied for second in wRC+, third in wOBA, and third in fWAR.

Is there much else that truly needs to be said? Personally, I think it would be absurd if Xavier Edwards wasn’t voted in as the starting second baseman come the Midseason Classic  

While a lot of shine on the team is being cast on the MLB batting average leader in Otto Lopez and the hitter tied for the most RBIs in the league with 42 in Liam Hicks, what Xavier Edwards has done for this Marlins lineup is something they have been yearning for in quite some time.

He is making as strong a case as any to be the starting second baseman in Philadelphia at this year’s All-Star Game, and I will be the first to congratulate him if he earns the honor.