Rays’ Chandler Simpson Records Fastest Home-To-First Time So Far In 2025
Image credit: Chandler Simpson (Photo by Mark Taylor/Getty Images)
If anyone needed more evidence that Rays outfielder Chandler Simpson is the fastest baseball player in the game, he showed it again on Sunday.
Two weeks after he managed to single on a ground ball hit straight to a first baseman in the minor leagues, Simpson singled on a ground ball hit to Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.
This was a much more conventional play, though it was also one that required a bit of analysis by the official scorer.
In the fifth inning when the play happened, it was ruled an error, as the ball kicked off Goldschmidt’s glove to shortstop Anthony Volpe, who had no chance to throw Simpson out. But after Max Fried finished the seventh with a no-hitter still in play, the official scorer changed it to a hit, having realized that, even if Goldschmidt had fielded the ball cleanly, there was no logical way Fried was going to beat Simpson to first base in a foot race. Fried then gave up a second hit in the eighth inning.
That’s all window dressing for the most interesting aspect of the play: Simpson was timed by Statcast as getting from home to first in 3.90 seconds. That’s the fastest time recorded by any MLB hitter on a swing (more on this distinction below) so far this season.
By scouting standards, a 3.9 from the left side on a swing is considered an 80-grade time. But the way Statcast times home-to-first times is pretty consistently one-tenth of a second slower than a hand-timed home-to-first times, so this could be considered a truly exceptional time.
That 3.90 is the fastest time recorded on a swing since the Pirates’ Ji-Hwan Bae went home-to-first in 3.89 seconds on a ground ball to first base last August against the Padres. Those are the only two 3.90 or faster times in the last two seasons.
It should be noted that Simpson’s 3.9 time is actually the 35th-fastest of the 2025 season, and Bae’s was the 277th fastest time from 2024. But this is for a good reason. I checked the 300+ faster times for 2024 and 2025 to verify that they were all bunts.
A bunting player gets to build up momentum toward first base before they make contact, which can cut multiple tenths of seconds off their home-to-first time. Catchers Connor Wong, Garrett Stubbs and Drew Millas all had sub 3.9 times on bunts last year.
Simpson also had the fastest home-to-first time in Triple-A this year with a 3.91 time.
Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has arguably been even faster. He has a 3.96-second time this year, but that came as a righthanded hitter, which means he had further to travel. Normally, a righthanded hitter is given a one-tenth of a second adjustment because of that.
