Jo Adell Notches Rare MLB Feat After Sunday’s Win

Jo Adell added an unusual piece of trivia to his season Sunday, and it is the kind of detail that will likely follow him around Cleveland for a long time. His long home run off Joe Ryan, the same blast that reached the third deck in left field at Target Field, carried an exit velocity that made it the hardest hit ball by any Guardians player this season. Paired with a mark he set back in May while still with the Angels, Adell now holds the honor of producing the season’s hardest-hit ball for two different organizations in the same year.

Sarah Langs laid out just how rare that accomplishment actually is.

“Jo Adell currently has the hardest-hit ball this season for both the Guardians (116.8 mph 9/13) and Angels (114.9 mph 5/22) Just 2 players have finished a season with the hardest-hit ball for multiple teams in the same season under Statcast (2015): 2023 Jake Burger CHW/MIA, 2021 Jorge Soler KC/ATL (T1 ATL) ,” Langs wrote.

Jo Adell currently has the hardest-hit ball this season for both the Guardians (116.8 mph 9/13) and Angels (114.9 mph 5/22)

Just 2 players have finished a season with the hardest-hit ball for multiple teams in the same season under Statcast (2015): 2023 Jake Burger CHW/MIA, 2021… https://t.co/h9dEN3diDi

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 13, 2026

Only two other hitters have pulled off that same feat since Statcast began tracking exit velocity across the league back in 2015. Jake Burger did it in 2023 while splitting time between the White Sox and Marlins, and Jorge Soler managed it in 2021 after being traded from the Royals to the Braves midseason, a year that ended with him winning a World Series title in Atlanta. Both of those seasons involved midseason trades, the same circumstance that brought Adell to Cleveland at this year’s deadline.

For Cleveland, the larger takeaway goes well beyond a piece of Statcast trivia. Adell has quickly become one of the more dangerous bats in the middle of this lineup since arriving at the deadline, and having a hitter capable of squaring up a baseball this hard gives the Guardians a different level of thump as they push toward the postseason. With the biggest series of the season against the White Sox starting Monday, a power threat playing at this level could not be arriving at a better time.