All told, with 28 home runs, 92 RBI, a .261 average, and a .796 OPS in 554 plate appearances this year, Pasquantino has exceeded his performance from a season ago in pretty much every metric (in roughly the same number of plate appearances as well). He does have five fewer RBI, but he has nine more home runs, two more hits, and his OPS is five points higher.
At the very least, the Royals’ 27-year-old first baseman is showing the potential to be a 30 to 40-home run hitter at the MLB level. Those kinds of hitters do not grow on trees, especially at Kauffman Stadium, which can be tough for hitters when it comes to hitting home runs (Kauffman has the third-lowest HR factor in MLB, according to Baseball Savant).
Therefore, the Royals are in a bit of a dilemma, especially with Pasquantino becoming arbitration-eligible this offseason: Do they invest now in their first baseman, or do they wait and see for another year or two?
Pasquantino’s 2025 By the Numbers
When it comes to his Statcast and batted-ball metrics, Pasquantino has shown some signs of improvement in 2025.
After posting a 7.1% barrel rate, 112.2 mph max exit velocity, and 31.9% sweet-spot percentage last season, he is sporting a 10.3% barrel rate, 114.4 mph max exit velocity, and 32.9% sweet-spot percentage this year.
His hard-hit rate is down from 46.5% in 2024 to 43.9% this year. That said, his ability to launch the ball better (a two-degree increase in average launch angle from last year) has led to more productive contact overall, despite the dip in hard-hit rate.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.justbaseball.com ’
