The Problem with Jacob Wilson's Start, and Why it Won't Last

Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson hit the ground running in his first full season in the major leagues in 2025. This year has been more of a slow burn. While his defensive abilities are much improved, his bat hasn't quite been up to his own lofty standards just yet.

Last season he hit .311, which was tied for second across all of MLB with Bo Bichette, with both trailing 2025 AL MVP Aaron Judge (.331). This year, Wilson is batting .279 with a .286 OBP, good for an 83 wRC+ (100 is league average).

While none of his numbers are causing too much alarm, the fact that he has walked just once after holding a 5.2% walk rate last year, along with striking out at a 12.4% clip this year, is something to take notice of.

So what is behind these numbers?

The profile has changed subtly

The simple answer to what has changed is that Jacob Wilson has been swinging at pitches outside of the zone a lot more this season, and that has led to his numbers being down from where they were last season. In 2025, his O-swing% (percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside of the strike zone) was 32.1%. This year it's up to 45.1%. That's the noticeable difference.

It also seems as though he has hit some rockets directly at people, or been robbed of hits a few times over the course of the season, but that evidence is more anecdotal.

In watching Wilson play, this slight change in approach has been noticeable in other ways too, like on Sunday in the bottom of the ninth inning with two runners on and the A's down by three.

He swung for the fences, and ended up popping up a sweeper in the middle of the plate to shallow center. This was a microcosm of the problem that he's been battling all season.

Wilson's game is to make contact and move the runners up—keep the line moving. Hitting right behind him on that day was Shea Langeliers, who has eight homers on the year. If Wilson was able to keep the A's alive for another batter, Langeliers would arguably be the go-to home run guy on the team right now.

The good news here is that once Wilson tightens his zone up and stops chasing pitches, he should be fairly close to being good to go. The other bit that could use a slight tune up would be to stay within his strengths (contact) when he's up in big spots.

Obviously this is hard to do at times. Wilson signed the big extension in the offseason and has been working on adding some pop to his game, so it makes perfect sense that he'd be trying to put a charge into one in a big situation. But he got paid because of the profile he already has.

Adjustments are already underway

After Wednesday's loss in Seattle, Wilson said that at the start of the year, he was just going up to the plate and not really feeling like himself.

"Obviously, it's the beginning of the year, tensions are a little high just cause you wanna get the year off to a good start. Once I started to calm down a little bit, I started getting back to myself and started going up there and having good at-bats. I feel like I'm getting back to myself. There's still some work to be done, but I think it's getting better."

The bright side here is that he has been making some gains overall, making a little more hard contact. He's upped his exit velocity slightly to 85.1 mph (up 0.5) and added nearly 10% to his hard-hit rate, which is up to 34.1%. His expected stats (xBA and xSLG) are in the same range they were last year, too, so he's close.

Wilson is a solid hitter who knows how to find success on the baseball field, and it looks like he's already made the necessary adjustments for him to get back to the level of success he enjoyed last season.

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