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Discrepancies in measurements of athletes aren’t all that uncommon in the sports world. In fact, it’s fairly normal for football and basketball players to fudge their height and weight at the high school and college levels.
But in the latest example of this strange phenomenon, things seem to be working backward. According to the league’s official measurements, a number of MLB players appear to have gotten shorter in the six months between the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
And as it turns out, there’s a pretty good reason for it.
THAT IS SOME SERIOUS SHRINKAGE pic.twitter.com/Sb72fCV3MY
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) March 20, 2026
MLB Players Are All Remeasuring Themselves And Getting Shorter Due To ABS System
The most notable example of the shrinkage is Tampa Bay Rays utility player Gavin Lux, who went from being listed at 6-foot-2 last season with the Cincinnati Reds, to just 5-foot-11 this year with the Rays.
But Lux isn’t the only one.
As Adam McCalvy of MLB.com notes, several players across the league are suddenly much shorter this year than they were a year ago.
“Because people shrink over the course of a day,” Brewers assistant general manager Will Hudgins told McCalvy. “I’m not entirely sure how much, but I’ve been told that enough times to believe that it is scientifically true.”
As it turns out, there’s an extremely valid explanation for this. Hudgins told McCalvy that Major League Baseball has standardized rules for measuring players this season, including when they can be measured.
What’s the reasoning? Well, it all has to do with a massive flaw in the new automated balls and strikes challenge system.
“We’re under the impression right now that wherever you get measured at doesn’t come into play if you then crouch in your batting stance,” Brewers second baseman Sal Frelick said of the system. “So, if you’re a guy who gets really low in his batting stance, they still take the frame from when you were just standing upright.”
Where teams used to play fast and loose with players’ listed heights, it’s now important to be precise and, perhaps even more so, short. The less distance between your knees and your letters on your uniform, the smaller the strike zone.
So if you look up at the scoreboard and see that your favorite player has lost a couple of inches of height over the winter, now you know why.