Blue Jays’ Travis finding an opposite-field stroke that feels right

Toronto Blue Jays Devon Travis hits a single against the Philadelphia Phillies. (Mark Blinch/AP)

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Devon Travis has been looking for this feeling for a long time.

It was the top of the eighth inning Wednesday night, and the plucky Blue Jays second baseman was standing at the plate with a runner on second and two out. He worked the count to 2-1 before Philadelphia Phillies reliever Hector Neris threw him a 94-mph fastball up and over the plate.

Travis swung at it the same way he has at hundreds and hundreds of batting practice fastballs over the last month. The same way he has at the pitches he’s gotten to hit in 18 games since returning from the disabled list. The same way he always does. But this time it felt different. It felt like it did last season, when there wasn’t a pitch anywhere in the strike zone that Travis couldn’t handle.

He lined that Neris fastball hard the other way, over the head of the Phillies second baseman and into right-centre field, driving in the Blue Jays seventh run of the night. It was his sixth hit in his last three games, but more importantly than any of that, it simply felt right. 

“That’s what I’ve been searching for over these however-many at-bats since I’ve been back. That hit to right-centre. And it finally came. That was a really nice feeling,” Travis says. “It’s not even about the hits. It’s the feeling when you swing and you make contact. It’s that opposite field drive. That’s when I feel like my swing is working the way it needs to work.”

For the most part, his three weeks since returning to the Blue Jays after off-season shoulder surgery, his swing definitely wasn’t working. He carried a .188/.219/.275 slash line into Wednesday night’s game and had just four extra-base hits. But, more concerning than the results was the way his swing felt. Something was off. He wasn’t able to shoot the ball the other way, a truly crucial part of his game that allowed him to have such success in his first go-round as a major leaguer last year before injuries derailed his season.

You can see it in his spray chart. Nearly every single one of Travis’ fly balls and line drives in 2015 was hit from dead centre field to the right field foul line. When he’s at his best, Travis is driving the ball the other way with authority.


Source: FanGraphs

“It’s the biggest thing for me. And when I’m going good, I can hit pretty much all of the pitches that are thrown to me to right-centre,” Travis says. “And with that approach, if I happen to pull it a little bit, it’s up the middle. And if I’m a little late, it’s down the line. If I’m a tick ahead, it’s going left-centre. So, that’s pretty crucial.”

Travis has been a daily presence in the indoor batting cages over the last few weeks, working with Blue Jays hitting coaches Brook Jacoby and Eric Owens to rediscover that swing. They’ve tried different drills, they’ve tried different approaches, they’ve tried methods of seeing the ball differently. But the most important factor that’s led Travis to start feeling right again may simply be time.

Remember, he didn’t get to work at all this off-season, as he was on strict orders not to do anything with his left arm following shoulder surgery, and he didn’t receive clearance to start swinging a bat until late in spring training. Considering his injury-plagued 2015 season, the 25-year-old hasn’t been able to consistently work on his approach since this time last year.

He served just a nine-game rehab assignment when he was finally cleared to play again a month ago, and was rushed back to the majors when Troy Tulowitzki went down to injury in late May. If over the last month Travis has looked like a guy who’s going through spring training, trying to find his feet at the plate, that’s because he has been.

“I wouldn’t say I was pressing, because I wasn’t searching for hits or anything like that. I just wanted that feeling back so bad. That feeling of being ready and right,” Travis says. “And it’s almost like I was searching for that feeling too hard rather than just letting it come and understanding it’s a process and it’ll come over time.”

Travis has tried to speed up that process by treating batting practice as if it’s a real game. He imagines the pitcher isn’t a Blue Jays coach like Alex Andreopolos or Luis Rivera, but an opposition pitcher trying to get him out. He pictures where the defence might be lined up against him, and he creates scenarios in his head depicting different situations with runners on base and outs in the inning. 

“When that BP pitcher’s throwing, I’m geared up, like, ‘come on, let’s go,’” Travis says, miming a bat in his hands and sticking his ass out like he’s getting ready to swing. “Not having the spring or the off-season, for me, BP right now is a part of my day where I have to really focus on staying where I want to be. Because it’s so easy to fall out of that approach and get lazy, and next thing you know you take a step backwards.”

The key now for Travis is to continue working to maintain his swing while taking what’s given to him. He has an inside-out swing, and naturally prefers the ball on the inner half of the plate, but he won’t always see those pitches. Sometimes, he’ll have to get lucky, like he did in the fourth inning Wednesday night when he broke his bat with a way-early swing at a Jeremy Hellickson change-up on the outside corner, and still managed to send the ball into left field for a run-scoring double. 

And if his hit to right-centre later in the game is any indication, better things could be to come. He could be getting closer to becoming the guy he was last season; the guy who drives absolutely everything the other way. 

“I’m still getting back into the flow of the game. But, mentally, I’m starting to feel like I’m back in there again and I’m competing with every pitch and I’m taking balls and I’m swinging at strikes,” Travis says. “You have to stay with it. You’ve got to do your best to just stay flat-lined and continue to work and believe. And thankfully the last couple games it’s been working out a little bit.”

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