DUNEDIN, Fla. – As the ball left Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s bat and headed toward the left-field wall at Dunedin Stadium Sunday afternoon, his manager could only marvel at the one-handed swing that had produced such hard contact.
“If it was me it would have been a bloop single or something to the catcher,” Charlie Montoyo said. “That’s impressive.”
With the count full, Guerrero Jr. was simply trying to connect. He ended up with a loud double.
“I needed to defend the zone,” he explained through interpreter Tanya Bialostozky.
With his big smile, imposing stature and gold and purple dreadlocks, it’d be hard to miss Guerrero Jr. even if he wasn’t hitting doubles off the wall. On days like Sunday, when he produces at the plate, he’s front and centre yet seemingly unbothered by the attention.
“So relaxed,” Montoyo said. “It’s unbelievable and that’s a good sign for us.”
That’s not to say everything went right, though. A fielding error on a ground ball to third offered a reminder that Guerrero Jr.’s not as advanced defensively as he is at the plate.
“He’s going to get better,” Montoyo said. “He’s going to make the routine plays. This is the big-leagues and you’ve got to make those plays especially with the teams we play against. It’s just an error. I’m not going to make a big deal about it, but he knows it. He knows he should catch those balls.”
When the Blue Jays assign Guerrero Jr. to triple-A Buffalo before the start of the season, his defence will likely be among the reasons cited. Realistically, service-time manipulation would compel the team to keep him in the minors even if he were a more polished defender, so his glove’s just part of the picture here, but it’s also fair to say there’s room for growth defensively. Either way, Guerrero Jr. says he’s ready to work.
“I’m never satisfied,” he said. “I’m constantly focused on getting better.”
SHOEMAKER ON TRACK
Matt Shoemaker’s trademark splitter has been a go-to pitch since he was 14, so what exactly is he trying to accomplish when he throws it?
“When you hear hitters say the ball disappears and drops off the table, that’s what you go for,” Shoemaker said. “You get it to come into the strike zone and just drop to the bottom of the zone or hit the dirt.”
Now 32, Shoemaker’s encouraged by the way he feels after two spring outings. On Sunday, he mixed in all four pitches while striking out five Yankees and throwing 50 pitches. With last year’s forearm issues behind him, he’s hopeful that his arrival in Toronto will coincide with a career renaissance.
“I definitely view it that way,” Shoemaker said.
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STROMAN’S WORK BEHIND THE SCENES
In the hours preceding first pitch, you’ll often find Marcus Stroman on the infield at Dunedin Stadium taking ground balls at second or short. His thinking: Make sure he’s feeling athletic every time he takes the field.
“I never want to become just a pitcher,” Stroman said. “I’m the best when I’m being an athlete on the mound. I’m able to make in-game adjustments because I have that athleticism. Fielding ground balls takes me out of that pitching and being robotic and puts me back in that space. And also I’m trying to win a Gold Glove.”
Between starts, Stroman also goes through his motion left-handed to ‘unwind’ his body and ensure he’s as balanced as possible.
“If I throw 100 pitches in a game, by my next start, I would have gone through my motion lefty at least 100 times,” he said.
Stroman got the idea from Blue Jays trainer Nikki Huffman, and he has been so encouraged by the results that he intends to order a left-handed glove. Former teammate Jose Bautista was similarly balance-oriented when he played in Toronto, and would sometimes take batting practice left-handed, even hitting the occasional home run.
While Stroman rarely releases the ball left-handed and has never clocked his pitches as a southpaw, he believes this routine helps.
“As athletes if you do everything one-sided, you become very dominant on one side,” he said. “I think as athletes start to see the effects of unwinding, I think everyone starts to really like it once they grasp it.”
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