Heyward's closing in on 100 PAs since he returned from the concussion. In that time he's had 91 PAs, hit .318/.352/.506 with 5.5%/8.8% bb/k rate, .188 ISO, .329 BABIP, and a 130 wRC+. If I wanted to nitpick slightly that 5.5% walk rate isn't great but I'm wondering if pitchers just aren't pitching around him enough to draw walks thinking he's the guy he was the past 2 years rather than the hitter he's been lately. That 8.8% k rate is stupid good. His in season numbers are a bit higher there at 11.3% and he doesn't have enough PAs to qualify for fangraphs leader boards but if he did he'd be 9th in the majors at 11.3%. If we instead use the 8.8% he's been at since mid may that would be 4th. I don't think Andrelton Simmons's 4% k rate is sustainable but he's #1. Ian Kinsler is #2 at 8.4%. Michael Brantley is #3 at 8.5%. Last season Joe Panik lead the majors at 9.4%. It's also worth noting those numbers aren't fueled by a crazy BABIP. His highest season was .335 BABIP. He's more a career .300 guy but when he was hitting well he was fairly regularly over .300.
Looking at his batted ball data, without diving too deep into the numbers he's basically cut out infield fly balls while keeping a higher rate of fly balls. That's a very good sign. I'm not entirely sure what to make of his HR/FB rate. When he was a "good" hitter prior to the past 2 years it was regularly in the 12-16% rate. It's at 6.9% in this recent stretch and slightly lower on the season. I suppose you could argue he's sacrificing power for contact but I'm not entirely sure that's the case either given his .188 ISO would be one of the higher rates of his career. Also, his hard hit rate is among the 4 best seasons he's had and his soft contact rate over this recent stretch is second only to his rookie season by .2%.
