Amed Rosario's under-the-radar offseason work is fueling Yankees breakout in 2026

One of the most pleasant early-season surprises for the New York Yankees has been Amed Rosario. We knew Rosario had value. He's a versatile utilityman with a history of hitting lefties and is a vibes-forward glue guy in the clubhouse. So far in 2026, he's been much more.

Rosario has played 20 games, mostly platooning with Ryan McMahon at third base, and is batting .263/.302/.526 with four homers over his 61 plate appearances. Not only has he been productive, but he's also come through in the clutch.

McMahon has sprinkled in a couple of homers, but for the most part his scuffles have continued. That's led some to push for Rosario to get even more playing time. The flip side of the coin, though, has little to do with McMahon and everything to do with Rosario.

The sample is growing, but it's still relatively small, and it makes it hard to fully trust a 30-year-old journeyman who has played for six different teams from 2023-2025. However, his offseason work might negate some of those concerns.

It's flown a bit under the radar, but Rosario spent his offseason working out at the famed Driveline clinic. It looks like some of the work he's been doing there is paying off.

Amed Rosario's offseason work at Driveline might augment a prior trend and fuel a true Yankees breakout

Not every player who goes to Driveline sees immediate results (or any results, at all). Jose Caballero got much more notoriety for his own trip there, but so far we haven't seen the results of his work in action.

Rosario could be a different story. The former New York Met reached a career high in slugging percentage last season, coming in at .436, though it was over just 191 plate appearances. The driving force behind that was an increase in bat speed.

Since Baseball Savant began tracking bat speed via Statcast data in 2023, Rosario's been a smidge below average. He managed an average bat speed of 71.3 miles per hour (36th percentile) in 2023 and a mark of 71.2 miles per hour in 2024. In 2025, he raised it to 73.2 miles per hour. That led his average exit velocity to rise from 86.9 miles per hour to 91.2 miles per hour. This year, he's sitting with a 91.3 miles per hour exit velo.

Already on the right track, the two focuses for Rosario over the offseason were increasing his bat speed further and refining his bat path through the zone. Check and check.

Rosario is now up to an average bat speed of 74 miles per hour, adding nearly one more mile per hour to last season's two-mile-per-hour leap. The biggest indication that his training has worked, though, is the angle that his bat is traveling through the zone. Rosario's ideal attack angle percentage is sitting at 58.2%, a major jump from last season's 50.2% number.

That's led him to pull the ball in the air frequently. This was also a change in his game that began last season. Rosario had a pulled-air percentage of 10% in 2024, 17.9% in 2025, and now 17.8% in 2026. League average is 16.7%. This is the type of contact that does the most damage, so this is a stellar development.

One more big jump has been in Rosario's barrel rate. Even with the increased exit velo last year, Rosario only came through with a 6% barrel rate, but now he's barreling balls at a 13.3% clip.

Rosario's expected stats are even better than what his actuals say, further fueling the idea that his start is real. Rosario's xSLG of .624 is a 97th percentile mark. His .410 xwOBA is in the 93rd percentile.

Sounds ridiculous, right? But maybe he's just unlocking the talent that's always been there. A scouting report from Baseball America (subscription required) from 2017 compared Rosario to Francisco Lindor.

The bottom line is that Rosario began implementing changes and making improvements last season, and it drove results. This season, he's taking his offseason work to continue what he was building in 2025, and adding another crucial improvement with the way his bat path has changed. Increased bat speed plus an optimized swing path equal exceptional results. Rosario is bringing that equation to life thus far, feeding reason to believe.

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