On the finish of the 2019 minor-league season, Alex Name checked out his hitting numbers, then seemed himself within the mirror.
A former third-round draft decide who had already modified organizations as soon as, he knew he had simply had the sort of yr that sometimes portends a brief skilled profession.
As a 24-year-old outfielder on the double-A degree within the Cleveland Guardians group, Name had taken 325 plate appearances that yr with the Akron RubberDucks. In 93 of them — a charge of practically 30% — he recorded a strikeout.
It wasn’t the one ugly stat in a season that noticed Name bat simply .205, attain base at a .266 clip and hit solely 5 dwelling runs. Nevertheless it was the largest signal of a elementary flaw plaguing the right-handed hitter’s sport.
“That,” he recalled just lately, whereas reflecting on what turned a turning level second in his profession, “simply wasn’t gonna get it completed.”
Six years later, Name joined the Dodgers as a commerce deadline addition final week with a polar reverse popularity. Now, the defensively versatile outfielder is without doubt one of the tougher outs in all of the majors. Because the begin of final season, his .297 batting common ranks eighth amongst MLB hitters with not less than 350 plate appearances. Extra essential, over that very same span, he ranks high 60 in strikeout charge and stroll charge (with a 55-to-39 ratio total), and twenty second in chase charge; constantly placing collectively among the higher at-bats in all the game.
“This man’s only a straight grinder, works at-bats,” normal supervisor Brandon Gomes stated after the Dodgers acquired Name from the Washington Nationals in change for 2 pitching prospects. “Enjoying towards him, he’s at all times extremely irritating to attempt to sport plan for and get out.”
“I’ve confronted Alex just a few occasions,” added future Corridor of Fame left-hander Clayton Kershaw. “He’s powerful towards lefties, an incredible defender. A very good add, for certain.”
The Dodgers, in fact, may have made splashier provides on the deadline. They had been linked to All-Star caliber names, together with Steven Kwan of the Guardians, however didn’t splurge to pay such inflated deadline costs.
As an alternative, they settled for Name, who was a smaller title however got here with staff management via 2029. They put their religion in his overhauled offensive talent set, hopeful a private transformation greater than half-a-decade within the making will make him a key piece of their pursuit of a second straight World Sequence title.
“That’s my complete sport,” Name stated on the day he arrived with the membership. “I’m going to grind out at-bats, put the ball in play, take my walks, make it powerful on the pitcher, lengthen out the lineup.”
The origins of that mindset date to that 2019 season, and the pandemic-altered yr that adopted.
Coming into 2020, Name dedicated to a change on the plate. In what was a crowded pipeline of outfielders within the Guardians system — highlighted at the moment by Kwan, who has since blossomed into probably the greatest left fielders within the sport — he acknowledged he wanted a brand new identification. If he was going to achieve the majors, it was going to begin with merely working higher at-bats.
“It’s a foul feeling,” he stated, “having a cloud hanging over your head after a season like that.”
The one drawback: COVID-19 got here, the 2020 minor league season was canceled, and Name (like so many different minor-league lengthy pictures clinging to big-league desires) was left successfully on his personal.
So, he discovered alternative ways to enhance his bat.
Because the baseball world shut down, Name purchased a conveyable Junior Hack Assault hitting machine with a self-feeding ball dispenser. And in every single place he went that yr — from spring coaching housing in Phoenix to his childhood dwelling in Wisconsin to his household’s offseason residence in Indiana — he sought out anywhere “I may discover a hitting cage and an outlet” to make use of it, he stated laughing.
His focus was easy. Work on hitting fastballs up within the strike zone. Remove what had been one of many largest holes in his swing.
“For me, it’s nearly having that mentality to the place, it doesn’t matter if I’ve two strikes or if it’s an 0-0 rely,” he stated. “Imagine I’m snug in each scenario. I’m going to place the ball in play.”
By that winter, Name sought out a extra superior piece of coaching expertise as nicely.
Over the earlier couple years, an organization referred to as Win Actuality had begun manufacturing digital actuality hitting goggles — utilizing data-driven fashions, precise video and computer-generated photographs to recreate digital at-bats towards actual pitchers from a hitter’s viewpoint inside Oculus-style headsets.
A handful of MLB groups, together with the Dodgers, had invested within the system for his or her groups. Within the months main as much as the 2021 season, Name determined to do the identical for himself, shopping for the $300 product (and paying for its annual $200 software program program) to assist couple his new swing with a extra discerning strategy.
“[I was] simply actually working towards the zone,” Name stated. “Figuring out what pitches are my strengths and what pitches I don’t wish to swing at till two strikes. Creating that plan and creating that strategy.”
The coaching paid off.
At first of the 2021 season, Name was despatched again to double-A Akron. When he arrived, he was knowledgeable by supervisor Rouglas Odor that he would solely be slated to play 2-3 video games per week — a fast reminder of how far down the group depth chart he’d fallen.
“I bear in mind him being very dissatisfied,” Odor, now the Guardians’ big-league third-base coach, recalled this week. “However he took possession of his profession, and didn’t let what I informed him have an effect on him.”
Name’s likelihood arrived that Could, after Kwan went down with a hamstring harm. And nearly instantly, his COVID-year adjustments took impact. Over 180 plate appearances, Name hit .310, drew 21 walks and — simply as he’d hoped — minimize his strikeout charge by half, punching out solely 26 occasions.
“He was a very totally different hitter,” stated Odor, who had additionally been Name’s supervisor throughout his dismal 2019 marketing campaign. “Defensively, he was already to play within the large leagues. He made some unbelievable performs … However offensively, he discovered his stroke. His plate self-discipline was extra constant. And he had an unbelievable season.”
By the top of the season, Name had been promoted to triple-A. The subsequent July, he earned a promotion to the majors.
The ascent from there wasn’t linear. In August 2022, he was designated for task and claimed off waivers by the Nationals. In 2023, he performed in 128 big-league video games however hit solely .200, sending him again to triple-A for many of final yr.
Alex Name bats towards the Houston Astros on July 28 as a member of the Washington Nationals.
(Karen Warren / Related Press)
Nonetheless, his plate self-discipline didn’t waver (he struck out solely 78 occasions in his 439 plate appearances in 2023, an 18% charge, whereas additionally drawing 53 walks). His VR routine solely turned extra ingrained, seeing upward of 54,000 simulated pitches (or, primarily 25 seasons’ price of throws) via his headset every year, as he informed the Washington Publish final month.
All of it has clicked during the last calendar yr, with Name following up a productive return to the majors on the finish of 2024 together with his finest full-season efficiency this time period.
“The kind of participant that I’m, I can hit the ball over the fence, nevertheless it’s not likely my full sport,” Name stated. “So for me, it was about making an attempt to create as many alternatives to get on base as attainable … I’ve to have the ability to hit the ball at good angles.”
Name is one in every of solely 4 gamers with not less than 200 plate appearances this season (together with Kyle Tucker, Gleyber Torres and Geraldo Perdomo) who strikes out lower than 15% of the time, chases lower than 20% of the time and whiffs lower than 20% of the time. He has hit .236 with two strikes (higher than everybody else on the Dodgers besides Hyeseong Kim).
He had his first standout sport with the Dodgers on Wednesday, when he singled, doubled and made a catch whereas crashing into the left-field wall to avoid wasting an extra-base hit.
Eight at-bats into his Dodgers profession getting into Friday’s sport, he has additionally but to strike out as soon as.
“I’m at all times happy with gamers like Alex, as a result of he wasn’t this large prospect, however he turned an on a regular basis big-league participant,” Odor stated. “He had the urgency to make one thing occur so as to attain his objective, and his dream.”
And now, Name is aiming to take his profession one step additional — to be not only a productive big-league bat, however one able to taking part in an impactful position on a title-contending membership in Los Angeles.
“I at all times knew that I may do it and be a longtime main leaguer,” Name stated. “It’s simply, generally it takes just a little little bit of time. And I’m grateful that I used to be given that point, and simply continued to get higher.”
