While it may seem ridiculous to call a player with a career .210 batting average and .670 OPS anything other than subpar, Clemens has been productive enough this season to merit re-evaluation. After being traded from the Phillies to Minnesota on April 26, the son of seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens is rostered in just 17% of leagues despite a 1.130 OPS. Here’s why Kody Clemens’ breakout is for real, and why he’s worth rostering even as a strong-side platoon bat.
Three Reasons to Roster Kody Clemens
Reason #1: Improved Bat Metrics
Perhaps no player has benefited more significantly this year from a bat speed increase than Clemens. After a below-average 70.5 MPH swing speed last season limited his power output, he’s upped that mark to 73.0 MPH in 2025 and has seen added power as a result.
2025 MLB Average Exit Velocity, min. 25 BBE (Baseball Savant)
- Oneil Cruz, PIT (97.2 MPH)
- Kody Clemens, MIN (96.8)
- Shohei Ohtani, LAD (96.0)
- Aaron Judge, NYY (95.3)
While exit velocity alone can be a useful indicator of sustainable success, it’s more valuable when paired with launch angle and direction metrics. Clemens is pulling the ball in the air roughly 4% more this season than he did last year, which allows him to make the most of his added exit velocity. Although his fly ball rate has dropped from last season, his line drive rate has skyrocketed from 16.5% to 36.8%.
Statcast data was recently released to the public on Baseball Savant detailing every MLB player’s swing path. Ideal Attack Angle % measures how often a hitter’s vertical bat angle falls between five and twenty degrees at the point of contact, which is the optimal range for producing high-quality batted balls like line drives.
Clemens has an exceptional 65.8% Ideal Attack Angle %. The only three qualified hitters in baseball who pair such an ideal swing path with a 73+ MPH bat speed are Kyle Schwarber, Corbin Carroll, and Juan Soto – all superstars who are off to great starts.
Reason #2: Increased Patience
While not as directly useful for managers in rotisserie leagues, drawing a walk is oftentimes just as valuable as a hit in points leagues and does lead to more run-scoring. Clemens’ 9.7% walk rate this season is the highest of his career by a significant margin.
Last season, Clemens had -4 Swing Runs in the Chase Zone, which are pitches significantly off the plate that aren’t far enough from the zone to be completely non-competitive. This season, he has -1 Swing Runs in the Chase Zone and has hammered pitches over the middle of the plate. He’s already tripled his Swing Runs from 2024 on pitches over the heart of the plate. Clemens is hunting pitches down the middle and chasing fewer balls, which has significantly improved not only his walk rate but also his batted-ball quality.
Reason #3: Clemens Has Outstanding Expected Stats
Since he’s been used almost exclusively against right-handers by the Twins this season, Clemens hasn’t garnered as significant an amount of plate appearances or batted ball events as other hitters. Even so, his much-improved plate approach, optimized swing path, and greater bat speed have helped Clemens produce some of the best expected statistics in all of baseball. Expected statistics are especially useful for evaluating players like Clemens because they aren’t as prone to random variations that can significantly affect the statistics from small sample sizes.
This season, the Minnesota infielder has a .283/.377/.642 slash line. His actual production has been extremely good, and yet his expected statistics indicate even more success is yet to come. Clemens has a .324/.413/.637 expected slash line, which gives him an xOPS of 1.050. While it’s clearly a small sample size and we can’t expect him to keep up his current production, he’s certainly shown that there’s more in the tank than there has been in years past.
Reason #4: Clemens Plays Second Base
There’s a significant shortage of offensive production this season at the keystone. Despite his platoon role at second base, Clemens has the 9th-highest fWAR among all second basemen. And the highest OPS among qualified second basemen this season belongs to Brendan Donovan, whose .848 mark ranks 33rd among all qualified hitters. The lack of offensive firepower at second base makes Clemens’ production in the box that much more valuable to fantasy managers.
Despite playing a platoon role for the Twins, Clemens is evolving into a star right before our eyes. Since he’s available in the vast majority of leagues, there’s a great chance he can be picked up off your waiver wire today. Using Clemens in a platoon role with a lefty-mashing second baseman who struggles against right-handers (Nico Hoerner of the Cubs, for example) will maximize his value and turn him into a key cog of your winning fantasy baseball roster.
Images courtesy of Baseball Savant.
