New Report Reveals How Dodgers Turned James Tibbs III Into a Star Prospect

Ten years ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers became one of the first MLB organizations to partner with Driveline Baseball, a performance laboratory that uses data-driven insights to improve player performance.

Driveline was, at the time, a textbook example of an industry disruptor that used quantitative insights and cutting-edge technology to improve a legacy business — in this case, professional baseball.

Ten years later, Driveline's reputation lingers among old-school baseball minds and fans who lament the analytical emphasis on pitch velocity, movement and other forces that have de-emphasized contact and "small ball" in the modern game.

Yet within the industry, Driveline's methods are no longer those of an outside disruptor. They're embedded in the way most front offices scout, evaluate and train players and coaches. The Boston Red Sox are no exception.

The Red Sox contracted with Driveline in January 2024. Last October, they reached the postseason for the first time since 2021. This year, they're on pace to do so again. But not every individual player story is one of success.

The Dodgers benefitted directly from Boston's willingness to part with outfielder James Tibbs III in the Dustin May trade at the 2025 deadline.

Tibbs hit .207 in 30 games with the Red Sox. Through Friday, he's slashing .293/.415/.543 with 28 home runs and 98 RBIs at Triple-A Oklahoma City. While fans have been clamoring for his promotion in Los Angeles, fans in Boston were left to wonder why the Red Sox gave up on Tibbs so soon.

A new report by Julian McWilliams of CBSsports.com reveals why:

"Back in Boston's organization, the need to swing faster and pull the ball had trickled down to hitters who already possessed those traits," McWilliams wrote. "Take James Tibbs III. Tibbs, who came to Boston from San Francisco as part of the Rafael Devers trade last summer, immediately joined the organization's Double-A affiliate. Once he got into Boston's system, the team shifted his focus to just pulling the ball.

"But there was a problem: Tibbs was already a pull hitter with exceptional bat speed."

McWilliams reports that the Dodgers had Tibbs ditch the weighted bats that he was swinging in practice, believing it was leading to too much swing and miss. Instead, they had him embrace a hit-to-all-fields approach.

"With the Red Sox, the emphasis involved increasing his exit velocity, but his swing became too rotational. As a result, he was pulling off the ball and wasn't making consistent enough contact. Using the whole field allowed him to stay inside the ball longer while still being able to turn on pitches when he needed to."

Tibbs' journey illustrates why the debate around whether to "use analytics" in baseball is too complex to be reduced to black-and-white. The Dodgers continued sending pitchers and hitters to Driveline after their first experiment in 2016. They simply used the training tools Driveline encouraged differently than the Red Sox did — at least in the case of one hitter.

The result: a prospect who might be a better big league hitter right now than the $60 million veteran occupying right field at Dodger Stadium.

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