Who are the fastest runners in the MLB?

After the recent Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees matchups, Canadian baseball fans are buzzing. But as we watched the Jays dart around the bases, we can’t help but wonder: how fast are these guys, really?

According to MLB Statcast data (with stats as recent as late July 2025), player speed isn’t so straightforward to evaluate. It’s actually measured across six different metrics, tracking everything from how fast a player accelerates out of the batter’s box to their top speed reached in a full sprint.

1. Sprint speed

The first metric looks at the players’ fastest one-second window of all-out running. The league average is about 8.22 m/s, while anything faster than 9.14 m/s is considered elite.

1. 9.23 m/s – Bobby Witt, Jr. (Kansas City Royals)
2. 9.23 m/s – Trea Turner (Philadelphia Phillies)
3. 9.20 m/s – Byron Buxton (Minnesota Twins)
4. 9.20 m/s – Victor Scott II (St. Louis Cardinals)
5. 9.17 m/s – Johan Rojas (Philadelphia Phillies)
6. 9.11 m/s – Chandler Simpson (Tampa Bay Rays)
7. 9.11 m/s – Brandon Lockridge (San Diego Padres)
8. 9.11 m/s – Eli White (Atlanta Braves)

For comparison, while setting his 100m world record (9.58 seconds) in 2009, Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt reached a top speed of 12.42 m/s.

2. Home-to-first time

This area measures the time it takes for a batter to reach first base after making contact with the ball. (Shoutout to Toronto’s Myles Straw for cracking the top eight.)

1. 3.95 seconds – Chandler Simpson (Tampa Bay Rays)
2. 4.03 seconds – David Hamilton (Boston Red Sox)
3. 4.06 seconds – Jake Mangum (Tampa Bay Rays)
4. 4.08 seconds – Hyeseong Kim (L.A. Dodgers)
5. 4.08 seconds – Cody Bellinger (N.Y. Yankees)
6. 4.11 seconds – Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks)
7. 4.12 seconds – Byron Buxton (Minnesota Twins)
8. 4.12 seconds – Myles Straw (Toronto Blue Jays)

3. 90-foot splits

A “90-foot split” starts when the batter takes their first step toward first base, and analyzes the time it takes to run 90 ft. (27.4m) to first base. (This removes any swing or stance advantages between right- and left-handed batters, since right-handed batters are slightly further from first base).

1. 3.67 seconds – Chandler Simpson (Tampa Bay Rays)
2. 3.71 seconds – Victor Scott II (St. Louis Cardinals)
3. 3.72 seconds – Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks)
4. 3.73 seconds – John Rave (Kansas City Royals)
5. 3.74 seconds – Pete Crow-Armstrong (Chicago Clubs)
6. 3.75 seconds – DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (Minnesota Twins)

4. Burst

Like in track, reaction time and acceleration are crucial for top performances. The “burst” metric looks at the distance covered in the first 1.5 seconds after leaving the batter’s box. (Another shoutout to Jonatan Clase, who represents the Jays in the top eight.)

1. 10.18 m – Chandler Simpson (Tampa Bay Rays)
2. 10.03 m – Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks)
3. 10.03 m – John Rave (Kansas City Royals)
4. 10.00 m – Victor Scott II (St. Louis Cardinals)
5. 9.97 m – Pete Crow-Armstrong (Chicago Clubs)
6. 9.94 m – DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (Minnesota Twins)
7. 9.88 m – Jacob Melton (Houston Astros)
8. 9.88 m – Jonatan Clase (Toronto Blue Jays)

5. Home-to-home time

This one is self-explanatory, measuring the time it takes to circle all four bases–about 122m in total. The stats look at only inside-the-park home runs (which are rare), since most home runs are hit outside the park, meaning players don’t need to run at full speed around the bases. Here are the fastest home-to-home times since 2015:

1. 13.85 seconds – Byron Buxton, 8/18/17
2. 14.05 seconds – Buxton, 10/2/16
3. 14.08 seconds – Pete Crow-Armstrong, 8/23/24
4. 14.20 seconds – Corbin Carroll, 8/27/23
5. 14.24 seconds – Dee Strange-Gordon, 6/30/15
6. 14.29 seconds – Bobby Witt Jr., 8/14/23
7. 14.32 seconds – Carroll, 8/31/24

It’s difficult to compare these performances to Bolt’s (who has run 150m in 14.35 seconds), since the sand/clay/dirt surface is much more slippery and the turns are much tighter. But all things considered–these times are quick.

6. Bolts

Lastly, baseball players are evaluated based on how often they reach the elite speed of 9.14 m/s during their all-out runs. Here are the stats over a minimum of 50 competitive runs.

1. 57 per cent – Victor Scott II
2. 48 per cent – Johan Rojas
3. 44 per cent– Trea Turner
4. 43 per cent – Bobby Witt Jr.
5. 39 per cent– Chandler Simpson
6. 38 per cent – Byron Buxton

When it comes to evaluating speed across all metrics, a few names consistently rise to the top. Overall, Victor Scott II, Bobby Witt Jr., Trea Turner, Chandler Simpson, Corbin Carroll and Byron Buxton are undoubtedly the league’s fastest players, combining explosive first steps, impressive acceleration and elite top-end speed. No, they are no Bolt, but it would be interesting to see how these athletes perform when put to the test on a track.