Clayton Kershaw did not look anything like Michelangelo's David.
A shirtless photo of Kershaw celebrating a Dodgers World Series championship began circulating recently, tied to a social media debate about what a professional ballplayer's body ought to look like.
There was the future Hall of Famer, something of a dad bod. Not cut like an NFL perimeter athlete.
The debate harkened back to what Billy Beane told his scouts in that Moneyball scene: We're not selling jeans here.
But more than 20 years later, has that changed?
Should pitchers and baseball athletes be more in the jean-selling business?
I decided to ask around.
Zach Settles leads the high-performance department at Driveline. He's seen the social media pile-ons from time to time when an un-tarped physique is revealed and doesn't align with the popular perception of what an athlete ought to look like.
"I wonder if part of why (certain athletes) get bashed so hard is that the general population wants a distinctive reason they aren't at that level," Settles said. "He just must be a Greek-god, freakish athlete compared to them."
Younger players often show up at Driveline thinking they need to look like they could be on a billboard for Levi's. Definition. The Greek-god physique.
"A common misconception is that when people hear 'athlete,' they think you have to look like a running back who runs a 4.2, with shredded abs," Settles said. "That's not necessarily the case."
So, what does an optimal baseball build look like? What is the range?
One disclaimer, and it matters: the training prescription is different for everyone.
But I asked Settles what the typical professional pitcher training at Driveline looks like.
The median pro in our dataset weighs 209 pounds and stands at 6-foot-3, he said, with a good amount of lean mass.
"Really physical - able to produce a lot of force very quickly," he says.
Body fat?
"The majority are probably sitting around 18-21% body fat with a decent amount of lean mass," Settles said. "They're able to use the weight they have at a high level. Typically, we'd like that to be mostly lean mass. But the skinnier you are, the less margin for error you have. At a certain point, mass is going to help."
Eighteen to 21% body fat might sound high. But the average U.S. male age 20 to 39 sits at 25%.
Mason Miller, one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the game, is on the leaner end of that world.
The 6-foot-5 Miller has been as heavy as 245 in pro ball and as light as 220. He has felt best in the low-to-mid 230s. His target is 12 to 15% body fat, he says, checked on a regular interval.
"People are surprised at what 12% looks like on somebody," Miller told me.
Cleveland's Gavin Williams is another elite-stuff arm, who is enjoying a breakout season with the Guardians. He is getting there in a different body.
Williams has pitched as light as 185 pounds in college at East Carolina and as heavy as 275.
"I can't do that," said Williams, who is now in the 250-pound range. "At my heaviest, I wasn't moving efficiently down the mound. You could see the velo just gradually go down. I couldn't get in the right positions as efficiently."
Too light was a problem, too.
He could get to the positions and then couldn't always control what happened next. He'd love to live around 15 percent body fat, but he is enjoying a breakout season just north of 20.
"Everybody wants a six-pack, but at the same time, you don't need a six-pack," Williams said. "If people put a picture of me out there, they'd probably (criticize). But I'm in a good position, and I can pitch. That's all that matters. Being able to get in the right positions, at the right moment, is the biggest thing."
Strength matters, he said. What keeps guys healthy is being mobile while they stay stable.
Royals starter Seth Lugo, closing in on 1,200 career innings, does not want to be too lean.
"I definitely don't want to be all cut up and jacked," Lugo said. "Hypothetically, if you want one great season, yeah, I'd be ripped and jacked. You want to play a whole career? No, you can't do that."
Lugo treats some body fat as reserve fuel for a marathon season.
"Backup storage energy, which is fat, is OK," he said.
Settles makes the same point from the training side. An extended caloric deficit combined with low body fat reserves pushes the body toward catabolizing lean tissue.
"To get that lean you're running a big deficit, and once body fat is low there's not much fuel to pull from so the body starts pulling from muscle instead," Settles said.
His practical rule: report to spring training about five to 10 pounds heavier than the weight they want to pitch at.
"If they want to play at 205 and they report at 205, you're playing catch-up," Settles said. "They'll probably drop to 200 or 195 just from moving around more, being on their feet more, and being in the sun more. It's hard to keep caloric intake matched to that."
Even that rule is not universal. Williams says he would rather show up closer to 250 pounds, because as a starter he is not burning enough to drop the weight off. He eats three meals. He snacks at the game. He will drift toward 260.
Miller, Williams, Lugo - three major league pitchers, three different ways to hold a season together.
Lugo also remembers an earlier version of himself, lower body fat, best shape of his life. Then a flexor strain. Causation is hard to prove. It stuck with him anyway.
Overhearing the conversation in the visiting clubhouse at Progressive Field, Craig Kimbrel turned and offered the short version:
"Ass is gas."
Craig Kimbrel
A hefty lower half helps create energy.
Settles would add the other half of the equation. Mass only works if you can move it. Newton's second law is the whole argument in one line: force is mass times acceleration.
Too much of the wrong weight and the acceleration drops. That was Williams at 275. Not enough mass, and you have to be a genetic freak just to get down the hill.
"If you don't have much mass, you have to move ridiculously fast," Settles said. "Having a little of both is usually better than having no mass and being asked to be a genetic freak who gets down the hill at a stupidly high rate. You have less margin for error and have to be extremely proficient with how you move."
At Driveline we try to find that balance point by employing tools like force plates and motion capture. Can you produce a lot of force? Can you move your body at high velocity? Can you turn that into the pitch? That is the job. It does not require looking great in a swimsuit.
Most pitchers, even a future Hall of Famer like Kershaw, are not going to look like they came off the Baywatch set. They are not supposed to.
Williams says it is about getting to the right positions at the right moment. Settles says the same thing in lab language: produce force, move fast, make it a skill. Lugo said he wants some fat to help him get through the grind of a season.
So, let's stop grading pitchers with a swimsuit rubric. The jeans are not the product. The delivery is.
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