Healthier Ray puts last year behind him
Knee injury slowed progress of top pick
PHOENIX – If Corey Ray was searching for a convenient excuse to explain away a disappointing 2017 season, he could always point to his surgically repaired left knee.
Ray tore cartilage in it while sliding in an instructional league game in the fall of 2016, not long after the Milwaukee Brewers drafted the outfielder fifth overall out of the University of Louisville.
He spent the remainder of that offseason and then much of last spring in major-league camp rehabilitating, then played inconsistently in his first full professional season at Class A Carolina.
In 112 games and 449 at-bats with the Mudcats, he hit .238 with 29 doubles, seven home runs and 48 runs batted in while also stealing 24 bases.
What was especially troubling was
Ray’s strikeout total – a Carolina Leagueleading 156 – that went a long way toward tamping his on-base percentage to just .311.
Ray certainly wasn’t alone in his struggles at Carolina; other high-profile Milwaukee prospects such as 2015 firstround pick Trent Grisham, Lucas Erceg and Isan Diaz didn’t live up to their billing, either. Ray followed up by hitting .231 with one homer and seven RBI in 23 games in the prestigious Arizona Fall League.
But all that’s in Ray’s rear-view mirror now, and the 23-year-old is looking forward to a more productive 2018.
“Last year I wanted to do well and I told myself I wouldn’t let the injury be an excuse for me not doing well,” Ray said. “This year I just want to stay healthy and continue to get better. I felt like I got better last year. I got better in the Fall League, I got better in the off-season and I’m getting better in spring training.
“The goal is just get better and be the best player that I can be.”
Ray joined Carolina about two weeks into the 2017 season after finally clearing the final rehab hurdles. Alternating positions by team series in an outfield that also included Grisham, Troy Stokes Jr. and later Monte Harrison, he fared well enough to be named to the midseason Carolina League all-star team.
The month of May was Ray’s best, as he hit .290 with 16 RBI and a .368 on-base percentage in 25 games. But he managed only a .193 average in 24 games in July, getting a true taste of just how tough it is to play at a peak level throughout an entire season.
“You’d like to say as soon as you got back you felt 100 percent,” he said. “There wasn’t any pain (in the knee), but maybe toward the middle of the season is when I felt like I was the athlete that I once was.
“Just the ups and downs of the season, and it being my first full season and coming back from injury, there were times that I felt great. (But) holding onto that and consistently playing better is what I struggled with the most.”
One area where the left-handed-hitting Ray did do well was against lefthanded pitching; he hit .275 in 153 atbats against southpaws in the leftyheavy Carolina League vs. .220 against right-handers, albeit with much less power.
Fellow left-handed hitters Grisham (.180) and Erceg (.253) encountered more difficulty against lefties.
“I think early on all the lefties we faced was a shock,” Ray said. “But then you get to a point where you’re like, ‘Well, another lefty. There it is,’ and I think we did get more comfortable. I know I definitely got more comfortable facing lefties.
“When I saw a lefty warming up I’d say, ‘Here we do. It’s a fight.’ But now it’s just like facing a righty.”
Ray was one of a number of Milwaukee minor-leaguers who arrived in Maryvale early this spring, and just this past week he logged his first Cactus League hit for the Brewers. He’s likely to be ticketed to begin the season at Class AA Biloxi, farm director Tom Flanagan said, where he’ll again play all over the outfield.
“This year he appears to be in a really good place,” Flanagan said. “We’re excited to see him once the games start over here (on the minor-league side). He’ll get plenty of work in.”
With the knee no longer an issue, Ray believes fine-tuning his swing and repeating it from Day 1 this spring will do nothing but help him as he prepares to take his next challenging step up the minor-league ladder.
“The body feels great,” he said. “I think the difference is last year I was swinging around this time but my knee was still bothering me a little bit, and I think that me trying to catch up, taking those swings with my knee bothering me created bad habits that ended up carrying over to the season.
“But now I’m able to take the swing that I’m supposed to take, and I’m able to take the right reps – perfect practice makes better performance. And now that I’m getting the reps and doing things the right way.”
Ray was at one time considered the Brewers’ top prospect. He enters 2018 still ranked in the organization’s top 10 but is behind such position players as Keston Hiura (No. 1), Brett Phillips and Erceg with the potential to move back up the list this season.
“It’s hard, but I don’t think it’s as hard from a skill level,” Ray said when asked about the pro game in general and his expectations moving forward. “I think just doing it every day and getting in a routine and being consistent is the hardest part about being a professional athlete.
“Wherever I go, (I just want to) be the best player on the field.”