Vernon Wells.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Vernon Wells can understand why Toronto Blue Jays fans booed him so often last season.

He batted .260 with 15 home runs, 66 RBIs and an on-base percentage of .311. Players signed to US$126-million, seven-year contracts are supposed to do better than that.

"Obviously they were frustrated with me," said Wells. "I felt the same way."

Whether or not he plays up to that contract in 2010, there are at least encouraging signs of a Wells revival this spring training.

In seven Grapefruit League games he is batting .400 (8-for-20) with one home run and four RBIs. The centre-fielder has been hitting fourth in the lineup, where he will open the season.

But more important than the numbers is that he feels the strength and quickness returning to his hands and wrists, and feels that the ball is beginning to jump off his bat.

That's in contrast to how he felt last season, when he struggled with a left wrist injury. He doesn't use it as an excuse, but did have surgery last November to repair cartilage damage.

There was pain "at times" during the season, he said, but it was controlled with anti-inflammatory medication.

"It was more the instability, there was some discomfort in there," said Wells, who felt he would eventually work himself out of the hitting funk.

"Now looking back and the way I feel now, my hands are getting quicker and quicker by the day and the strength is coming back quicker and quicker by the day," he said. "I can see the difference from last year and this year."

Hitting coach Dwayne Murphy sees the difference, too.

"His BPs, his work habits are so much better," Murphy said. "He's in the cage every day. It's a big difference. I'm sure his wrist had a lot to do with it. If it hurts swinging you really don't want to go to the cage and swing all the time.

"So you try to save as many swings as you can. It's good to see Vernon healthy and having a good spring."

Wells is making the most of his improved health by taking more swings in the batting cage and with other extra work he couldn't do last season.

"This spring training is great for me," Wells said, "just to be able to take as many swings as possible, make sure [with] my wrist the strength and everything is back in it, the flexibility and things like that.

"Being able to get some at-bats and treat them as regular-season at-bats is the big thing. I've learned over the last few spring trainings how important just taking these at-bats as seriously as possible, treating them like the regular season helps you get locked in earlier in the season."

He batted .300 for his 80 road games, but had only seven home runs and 31 RBIs. He batted .214 with eight homers and 35 RBIs in 78 games at home where he has hit 104 of his 192 career home runs. Also in 2009, he batted only .206 against left-handed pitchers.

"I think the thing last year dealing with what I had to deal with you start developing bad habits," he said. "Your mechanics get off and you get long (with the swing) in certain areas. If you get long you're going to get beat by fastballs and pop up the breaking balls. Now it's just working on getting rid of those bad habits. When my swing is right, it's short, compact and just straight to the ball.

"That's what we've been working on every morning and during batting practice, just driving the ball back up the middle, hitting line drives. My home runs are usually just products of elevated line drives anyway."

It's also about getting the swing started on time and manager Cito Gaston said last year that Wells didn't do that.

"If your timing's off, your swing is going to be off," Wells said. "Your swing is going to be long, which created bad habits for me last year to say the least.

"When I'm in a strong position all I've got to do is think about is using my hands. I'll be able to hit a hard fastball the other way, on the breaking ball just use my hands.

"This spring training I'm starting to see the ball jump off my bat. My hands feel quick. Anything inside I'm starting to be able to drive the ball the other way again. The thing is just to have confidence in being able to drive the ball to all fields."

Because of his salary and past success, Wells is looked at to lead the offence, and to take an overall leadership role in the clubhouse.

"I relish that role," Wells said. "I love to be in that role. When you struggle, you're going to hear about it. When you're doing well you're expected to do well. But I like it.

"No one's going to put any more pressure on myself than I am. I expect more than anybody would expect out of me."