If a young hitter were to emulate another MLB position player's swing, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. isn't a bad place to start. The Blue Jays franchise player went nuclear during the postseason, carrying a 1.289 OPS, winning the ALCS MVP, and bringing Toronto within one game of a World Series title. With the baseball world watching Vladdy Jr. amaze us this past month, one Atlanta Braves hitter took Vladdy's October performance as a chance to improve his own game.
The hitter taking notice of what made Vladdy Jr. so successful this past month is... Braves infielder, Nacho Alvarez Jr. The 22 year-old infielder is one of several Atlanta Braves prospects getting extra reps down in the Arizona Fall League. Despite already graduating from the Braves' prospect list, Nacho needed the extra at-bats in the AFL to counterbalance the time he missed with injury these past two seasons. Thankfully, Nacho is making the most of his time in the AFL as a recent story details how he saw something in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s swing that could help his own swing.
Joining the party 🥳
— MLB's Arizona Fall League (@MLBazFallLeague) November 1, 2025
Nacho Alvarez Jr. (ATL) hits his first home run of the fall, extending the Desert Dogs lead to 5-3. pic.twitter.com/pdGpzKiCCr
Nacho Alvarez adding piece of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s swing and the results should excite Braves fans
Nacho got his first extended cup of coffee at the big league level while filling in for the injured Austin Riley down the stretch in 2025. The Braves quickly found out Nacho has the tools to help the big league team with his glove, but the bat felt like it could use more pop. Enter Vladdy Jr. to the rescue. In a recent interview, Alvarez mentions how seeing the Blue Jays star's swing helped him add what he is calling a "hand pump" into the mechanics of his own swing.
Alvarez says he flirted with the hand pump addition to his swing while in Triple-A last season. Despite the addition feeling good by Alvarez's own admission, he claims he couldn't fully trust it because of the wrist injuries he had previously. Better late than never we suppose as the new swing helped produce Nacho's first five-hit game as a professional on Saturday. Even more exciting is the fact that all of Nacho's five hits were put in play over with over 99 mph exit velocities.
If there was one area of Nacho's game that was really worrisome it was the fact that he carried an uninspiring 84.9 mph average exit velocity at the big league level. The knock on Nacho was that he was content slapping the ball the other way, and forgoing the chance to tap into his pull-side power.
The early returns on the swing changes are promising, but of course a very small sample size too. However, this swing change should give Braves fans more reason to pay attention to how Nacho and the rest of the Braves' prospects perform down in Arizona. Hopefully, we continue to see Nacho hit the baseball hard down in the AFL, if so the Braves could get a big boost to their trustworthy roster depth in 2026.