MLB fans stunned as several unlikely faces among league hard-hit percentage leaders: "Heyward still plays?" "Bethancourt, known top five power hitter"

As we approach the end of the first month of the MLB season, there are some notably unlikely players topping the league's hard-hit percentage board.

According to Statcast, "a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher, and a player's 'hard-hit rate' is simply showing the percentage of batted balls that were hit at 95 mph or more."

While the top 10 list includes many of the usual suspects such as Aaron Judge, Matt Chapman, Giancarlo Stanton, Paul Goldschmidt and Randy Arozarena, there are players among the league's hardest hitters that are taking fans by total surprise.

Shockingly leading the list is Los Angeles Dodgers reserve outfielder Jason Heyward. A 14-year veteran, Heyward hit a home run in his very first MLB at-bat in 2010, but has never hit more than 27 homers in a season.

Heyward signed with the Dodgers this past offseason to stave off retirement at the still fairly young age of 33 after playing the past seven seasons with the Chicago Cubs. His greatest baseball achievement is possibly the inspiring "rain delay" speech he gave during Game 7 of the 2016 World Series that rallied the Cubs to win the ballclub's first championship in 108 years.

With Los Angeles, Heyward was hitting just .159 entering Thursday's games. But there he is, atop the leaderboard by logging hard-hit balls in 64.7% of his at-bats.

Similar to Heyward topping the list, seven-year MLB journeyman catcher Christian Bethancourt is at No. 5. Bethancourt, a former pitcher who is now part of the Tampa Bay Rays' catching platoon with Francisco Mejia, has just 23 homers since taking his first big-league at-bat in 2021. However, in 52 at-bats this season, he has four round-trippers.

Kansas City Royals backup catcher MJ Melendez comes in at No. 8. In his second MLB season, Melendez is not as shocking of a player to see among the top 10. In 536 major-league at-bats between 2022 and 2023, he has 20 homers.

But with the Royals mired in an awful season, Kansas City fans are just happy to see one of their own mentioned in the same breath as hard hits.

Seattle Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic is at No. 10, with 58.2% hard hits during his at-bats in his renaissance season. He's become well known around the league for his much-improved bat over previous seasons.

However, with so many non-household names on the hard-hit list, fans are wondering why their obscure favorites are not mentioned.

Hard hit balls don't necessarily translate into MLB homers

Christian Bethancourt #14 of the Tampa Bay Rays reacts after hitting a home run

Ask any MLB pitcher that's been hit by a comebacker — hard hit balls don't necessarily mean home runs. Screaming line drives often find their way into the opponent's gloves. Just ask Heyward.