Hard-hitting McCoy's mechanical changes have brought him to a whole new level

Listed at 6-foot-5, 235 pounds as a freshman at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Alex McCoy certainly arrived on campus with the frame of a slugger.

But after his first season in 2021 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he hit only one homer in 27 games for the Hawks in 2022 and went deep only three times as a junior in ‘23. A .490 slugging percentage for Waynesboro in the Valley League that summer was a sign of optimism, but ahead of his transfer to Hofstra in 2024 – where he’d be coached by 14-year Major Leaguer Frank Catalanotto – McCoy’s raw strength and power hadn’t translated into games. A mechanical change was certainly in the cards.

“I was very squatty,” he said. “I kind of looked like Giancarlo Stanton – no load, no stride, just throw my hands at the ball. It was sustainable in summer ball, but I got to Hofstra my first day, and they immediately said that probably wouldn’t fly in the [Coastal Athletic Association] based on having no adjustability.

“They told me to be an athlete.”

Two years later, McCoy – now ranked as the No. 19 prospect in the Padres system – is still getting Stanton comps but not for his mechanics. Instead, they’re for his ability to light up exit velocity leaderboards.

Take, for example, his 119.5 mph EV on a groundout for High-A Fort Wayne on April 12. That would be the hardest-hit ball in the Majors this season, trumping a 119 mph double from Oneil Cruz on April 16, and the second-hardest-hit ball ever struck by a Padres Major Leaguer in the Statcast Era (since 2015) behind only a 119.6 mph homer by Manny Machado on Aug. 20, 2021.

This hasn’t come completely out of the blue. The right-handed slugger maxed out at 118 mph last season with Single-A Lake Elsinore in his first full professional season. But McCoy is proving he’s more than a Statcast/Trackman/Hawk-Eye legend in the Midwest League.

Entering this week, he’s hitting .286/.359/.571 through 47 games with Fort Wayne. His 18 doubles and 29 extra-base hits both lead the Midwest League, while his 100 total bases are tied with Brewers 2025 first-rounder Andrew Fischer for the top spot. About those aforementioned homers: he’s gone deep 10 times, tied for second-most in both the Midwest League and the San Diego system.

Part of this performance is a downstream effect of McCoy, who didn’t have much access to analytic readings as an early collegian, realizing he was capable of hitting the ball that hard in the first place.

“I shocked myself,” he said. “You see all over MLB guys who hit home runs at like 116, 115. So when I did that, it opened more doors. Hitting the ball 119 is hard. When you make contact, you don’t really feel it. It made me want to, obviously, put the barrel on the ball more, but when I do get the barrel on the ball, the ball’s gonna go somewhere and probably be hit hard. It opened up the game for me a lot.”

The 24-year-old outfielder is swinging a bit more in 2026 and, as a result, his swing rate has gone from 49.8 percent last year in the California League to 54.9 percent through April and May this season. It’s a modest bump and not one meant to move McCoy into supremely aggressive territory in search of his power. But he doesn’t want to leave any lasers in the holster either.

“If I get a fastball in the middle and I get a good swing on it, I think it’s going to be a double or above. That’s my mindset going into it now,” he said. “I can hit the ball 119, and even if it’s an out, I think it’s a plus for anybody. It’s a confidence thing.”

As the word has gotten out on McCoy in year two in the Padres’ system, he’s seen pitchers adjust to him, and the ebbs and flows of the game come and go. He was named the Midwest League Player of the Month in April, only to go 0-for-23 with 10 strikeouts from May 3-12. Per Synergy Sports, 48 percent of the pitches he saw in that down stretch were breaking balls, up from 39 percent in April. Taking that to heart, he’s adjusted back, going 19-for-63 (.302) with five homers in 16 games since that 0-for stretch. And if pitchers try to sneak a heater past him – as South Bend righty Grayson Moore attempted in the ninth inning last Friday – McCoy can still meet power with power and yank it over the left-field concourse.

With every such hack, McCoy is amplifying his place on the Padres’ and national prospect rankings’ radars. That’s a big outcome for a player who signed with San Diego for $150,000 as a non-drafted free agent after that one spring at Hofstra in 2024. He had other teams scouting him, like the Phillies, Red Sox and Reds, but a connection to area scout John McNamara, and later scouting director Chris Kemp, made San Diego feel like where he belonged. Two years later, he’s on a trajectory to be the latest scouting and potential development win for the organization.

“The Padres called my agent and said, ‘We’ll sign Alex when Day 3 is over,’ and I was fine with that,” McCoy said. “I felt at home at their workout. Someone called me Big Mac at that workout. With everyone on that staff, it felt so right.”