Former Atlanta Braves Prospect Making Big Strides in 2025

Apr 19, 2025; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers (23) gestures after hitting a solo home run in the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

When the Atlanta Braves traded Shea Langeliers to the Athletics as part of the return in the Matt Olson deal, he was clearly the top prospect headed back to Oakland. Now in his third full season in the big leagues, the A's catcher is making some big strides at the plate, though you have to look under the hood a bit to see the changes.

On the surface, his .221 batting average is right in line with his .224 level from a year ago. He also launched his fifth home run of the season on Saturday, but he finished last year with 29. Hardly unexpected.

But there is a breakout a brewin'.

During spring training, Athletics on SI noticed that he just wasn't striking out much, collecting just one in a total of 44 plate appearances. He noted that this is because he is approaching his at-bats differently and looking to utilize the whole field more often. While cutting down on strikeouts wasn't the goal itself, it's a nice bonus.

This season he has struck out just nine times in 77 plate appearances, good for a strikeout rate of 11.6%. In his career, that rate has sat closer to 30%, coming in at 29.2% in 2023, and 27.2% a year ago. If it ends up at around 20%, that's still a huge step in the right direction.

But that's not all that's working for Shea so far this season. In addition to making more contact, he's also walked nine times, or just as often as he's striking out. He's gone from a league average walk rate to sitting in the 77th percentile.

Shea is also hitting the ball hard more often, squaring up balls 32.4% of the time, which is up nearly nine percent over last season.

While it's not always productive to look at expected stats to prognosticate the future, they can give a glimpse into what the future could potentially hold. In this case, it's his expected batting average that jumps out. It sits at .286 currently, and that's based off the quality of contact he's been making this season.

If you could guarantee that he'd continue to make the same level of contact over the course of the full season, then you'd likely end up seeing him hit pretty close to .284. The quality of the contact will fluctuate over the course of the year, so that figure will go up or down accordingly, but as of right now, he's playing like he's a different guy at the plate.

The numbers just aren't jumping out like they usually do for a breakout--yet.