Colorado Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar is off to a rough start in 2026. Over the first 44 games, he is batting .203 with one home run and 11 RBI. 

Ezequiel Tovar’s struggles are related to a specific pitch: the four-seam fastball. He has seen this offering 236 times over his first 44 appearances in 2026, a career high 39.3% of the time. 

He is hitting .135 with zero home runs. It is not the first time he has struggled against this offering, as since May 3, 2024, he has been hitting .202 with four home runs.

The poor performance is due to a mechanical change in his hitting approach. On May 3 2024, Ezequiel Tovar changed his swing timing mechanism from a leg kick to a toe tap. The change put him in a position where he could wait longer before starting his swing. 

On May 2 2024, Ezequiel Tovar faced Edward Cabrera, formerly of the Miami Marlins. He waited until Cabrera was about to release the baseball before starting his leg kick. Ezequiel Tovar raised his left leg until it was parallel to his right knee . When this process was complete, Edward released the ball. 

Ezequiel Tovar brought his legs back down to the ground before starting to swing. By the time his foot reached the ground, the baseball was about 2 ft from the plate. He would go on to turn his hips to bring them back into the zone, resulting in a groundout to third base.

On the other hand, he faced Jesús Luzardo of the Philadelphia Phillies on April 4, 2026. When Jesús Luzardo began to separate the ball from his glove, Ezequiel Tovar raised the heel of his left foot. 

The heel remained in the air until the baseball was about 1 foot away from the plate. Ezequiel Tovar tapped his left foot on the ground, his cue to begin his swing. 

This was immediately followed by a decision to put his entire foot on the ground to bring the bat into the strike zone. Unfortunately, the baseball was entering the catcher’s glove as he brought the bat into his swing, though. As a result, he swung and missed on a four-seam fastball.

The change has resulted in him making contact with the baseball at another point . Before May 3 2024, Ezequiel Tovar had an intercept point against the four-seam ball of 5.4 inches behind the plate. Unfortunately, the intercept point has increased by 0.6 inches since May 3, 2024, to 6 inches behind the plate.

These changes have led to a significant performance difference compared to the four-seam fastball. Before May 3rd, 2024, he hit 262 with nine home runs. However, since that date, his average has dropped to 202 with four home runs.

The standard statistics haven’t been the only thing affected by this change. He has seen a significant increase in his swinging miss rate. It has increased by 4.7%, going from 27.9 to 32.6%.

Therefore, Ezequiel Tovar needs to bring back the leg kick  to improve his offensive performance.