In a lineup loaded with talent, with both established and rising stars returning for 2026, Carson Kerce didn't quite stand out from the pack before the season began. That isn't to say that Kerce was a bad player — not by any stretch of the imagination.
Kerce slashed .313/.411/.475 in 2025, good for an .886 OPS. He made contact with 84 percent of pitches and 91 percent of pitches in the zone, all the while swinging at just 21 percent of pitches outside of it. So, no, Kerce was not a bad player by any means. He was, in fact, quite a good one, a starter for the Yellow Jackets from day one.
But those who watched him saw that he was even better than the stats suggested, and that he had room to get better still. Throughout the year, Kerce would toy with various timing mechanisms, searching for the …