A new study from a University of Florida sport management professor and colleagues is challenging long-held assumptions about how young athletes should train and suggesting that Major League Baseball teams might be missing players with a competitive edge.
The researchers found that baseball players who participated in high school track performed better at the professional level than those who specialized solely in baseball. Yet despite this measurable advantage, MLB teams do not appear to value track experience when drafting players or offering signing bonuses.
"It's a bit of a Moneyball-type finding. There's a clear performance benefit, but teams aren't recognizing it when they make decisions about talent," said Chris McLeod, Ph.D., an associate professor in UF's Department of Sport Management.
Mcleod contributed to the project launched by Tiberiu Ungureanu, Ph.D., Jason Sigler, Ph.D., and Zeynep Yavic, Ph.D., who share doctoral roots at The Ohio State University.
The study, soon to be published in the Journal of Sport Management, draws on an unusually rich dataset. Supported by the Society of American Baseball Research, Ungureanu, Sigler and Yavic combined decades of detailed professional performance records with nearly 97,000 historical survey responses from baseball players, originally collected by historian William Weiss. The surveys included a key question: which sports players participated in during high school.
By linking those responses to long-term career outcomes, the team identified patterns that previous research missed.
Their findings point to specific advantages: track appears to develop speed, explosiveness and timing — skills that translate directly to success in baseball, particularly in base running and fielding. Other sports, such as basketball or football, did not show the same consistent benefit.
"Multisport participation isn't a one-size-fits-all answer," McLeod said. "It depends on whether the skills from one sport crossover to another. Other sports do not consistently relate to performance improvement for baseball players like track does."
The implications extend beyond professional scouting. For families navigating the increasingly high-pressure world of youth sports, the research offers evidence against early specialization — a trend that has grown as travel teams and year-round training programs become more common.
"There's a lot of anxiety among parents about making the 'right' choice for their child's future," McLeod said. "Our study is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that specializing early in baseball alone does not necessarily lead to better outcomes."
To strengthen the study's conclusions, the researchers also addressed a key question: are naturally faster athletes simply more likely to choose track? Using a statistical method called Coarsened Exact Matching, they compared players with similar physical characteristics, such as height and weight. Even after matching players on those factors, track participation remained linked to better performance.
The study also uncovered a disconnect in how talent is evaluated. Analysis of previously unexamined baseball scouting reports showed limited mention of track backgrounds or even negative references to track as a distraction from baseball. Players with track experience were not rated more highly by scouts, despite their later success.
For MLB organizations, the takeaway is straightforward: better use of available information could translate into more wins.
"For teams, this is about identifying undervalued talent," McLeod said. "For athletes and families, it's about making informed decisions. And for researchers, it shows how much we can learn when we combine new data with long-term performance records."
