Bam Bam Blasts Baseballs: Leonard Stands Out in First Season with Gwinnett

Ready to begin his third season as part of the Detroit Tigers organization, Eddys Leonard saw his plans change when he was released by the club at the conclusion of Spring Training.

The 24-year-old quickly found a home for the 2025 season, signing with the Atlanta Braves on a minor-league deal on March 31.

“It’s a little different because you’re thinking you’ll be there for the rest of the year, but anything can happen,” Leonard said in an interview with Stripers broadcaster Dave Lezotte. “After I got released and signed here [with the Braves], I gave the glory to god and I’m just here doing my best.”

Since joining Gwinnett just a few days later on April 3, Leonard evolved into a breakout bat in the lineup while also fine tuning his game on the defensive side.

The Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native broke onto the scene during the Stripers’ second home series of the year vs. Lehigh Valley. Given a chance to start on a daily basis following an injury to infielder Jose Devers, he had two straight games with multiple extra-base hits batting from the ninth slot in the order.

That stretch included two of his five homers to lead the Stripers in the month of April. Leonard followed that up with four more longballs in May while receiving starts in the outfield for the first time since 2022 at the High-A level.

Opening the year as mainly a second and third baseman, he began to grow as a defender with starts at the corner outfield positions.

“I’m not going to complain about where I get put to play,” Leonard said. “I have to be able to do whatever they [the organization] wants me to do and I just want to help the team win.”

Leonard also sees a long-term benefit in becoming a more versatile defender.

“That’s really going to help me in my career because if I can show everyone, I can play different positions that’s going to be better for me,” Leonard said. “If I can play third, second, short, left, and wherever I can play, that’s going to help better my career.”

While Leonard got to showcase his power at the plate with nine homers in the first two months of the year, he found himself in a rough patch as the weather started to warm up.

Despite improving his season average by 12 points during June, Leonard was held without a home run for 37 games. That streak came to an end right before the all-star break as he left the yard on consecutive nights from July 11-12 at Indianapolis.

Leonard noted that opposing pitchers were approaching him differently and tried to get him to chase more out of the strike zone.

“They tried to throw me less fastballs and more breaking balls, and I was chasing a lot,” Leonard said. “Now I’m taking the bad pitches and try to hit the ones I can hit good.”

His thoughts were echoed by Stripers hitting coach Dan DeMent, who recognizes the power that Leonard possesses and has been working to help him create better swings.

“He got off to a hot start and people definitely started pitching him different,” DeMent said. “He’s been getting pitched tough and part of the thing for Eddys is understanding the strike zone better and he doesn’t have to supply the power, the power’s there, it’s all about the hit now. It’s about finding ways to have adjustability, use the whole field and put the barrel on the ball and be a good hitter.”

While working to regain form at the plate, Leonard was learning another defensive position during that time. He made his first professional start at first base on June 26.

He’s made five more appearances at the position this season, providing more defensive flexibility for Stripers’ manager Kanekoa Texeira to work with.

Texeira was pleasantly surprised with his ability to fill in at first base along with his development defensively as a whole in 2025.

“I think he got a lot better, I didn’t know he could play first base, and he showed us he can stand there and catch the ball,” Texeira said. “He’s finding the outfield, he’s really good on the dirt and it’s always good to be a swiss army knife in this game, he’s got the five different gloves so that’s good on him.”

Texeira has been equally pleased with Leonard’s offensive talents, giving him the nickname “Bam Bam” which caught on around the Stripers clubhouse.

“One time he called me Bam Bam and I asked why he called me that, he said you don’t know who Bam Bam is and I said no,” Leonard said. “He went to Google and found it and said they call me Bam Bam because I hit the ball hard.”

Following a hot month of July where he hit for a season-best .289 average with five homers and 17 RBIs in 23 games, Leonard showcased his hard-hitting ability when he sent a ball over the wall at 112.0 mph on August 16.

It was the hardest-hit homer by a Stripers hitter in 2025 coming just three months after he produced the furthest hit homer of the season, a 448-foot blast on May 11 vs. Durham.

Leonard wasn’t done adding his name to Gwinnett leaderboards.

One of his main goals heading into the season was reaching 20 home runs, something he last accomplished when he hit 22 between Class-A Rancho Cucamonga and High-A Great Lakes in 2021 with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.

Five more home runs in August brought him one away from the personal milestone.

The Stripers hosted a special Monday Labor Day game to open September and in the ninth inning, Leonard got his pitch.

His homer to left-center field made him the first Gwinnett hitter with 20 home runs in a season since Travis Demeritte hit 21 in 2021. The slugger also became the 11^th player in team history to reach the milestone.

“That was my goal I put on for this year and I made it and I’m proud of myself that I did,” Leonard said.

Leonard’s new goal for the rest of the season is finishing healthy heading into winter ball, where he plans to suit up for Aguilas Cibaenas of the Dominican Winter League for the second straight year.

In reflecting on his first year with both Gwinnett and the Braves organization, Leonard praised the people who have helped him improve.

“The people have treated me good,” Leonard said. “Especially Tex, he’s been helping me a lot. I know I can hit but my defense was struggling, and he’s been helping me. Dan [DeMent] has helped me and given me some drills that I can do during the season and in the offseason that can help me in my career.”

Having never worked with Leonard prior to his arrival in Gwinnett, Texeira has been excited about the progress he has made during the year.

“We knew he had a lot of power and knew we had a good little player,” Texeira said. “We just had to get a little out of him and I think throughout this year we did and he’s producing how the bat should, his defense has gotten better, we got ourselves a good ballplayer.”

Leonard has led the Stripers in most offensive categories including homers, RBI, doubles, triples, extra-base hits and total bases. In Texeira’s eyes, he’s producing this well already and he’s only going to get better in the hopes of making his MLB debut in the near future.

“He’s still young, he’s 24 so he’ll gain more power which will be scary,” Texeira said. “Everything else will get better with age, experience and playing time. His all-around game will get better and it’ll be fun to watch.”