LOST AND FOUND After year in which Myers was almost dead weight, Padres outfielder turns it around
One part of the utterly remarkable turnaround of Wil Myers is a technique tweak or adjustment to approach that the Padres right fielder and hitting coach Damion Easley guard like the recipe for Coca-cola.
The other part is brooming away the mental cobwebs.
Whatever it is, the results astound. In the course of mere months, Myers shifted from an overpaid offensive liability to, if we’re being clear-eyed about his numbers during the pandemic shortened season, an MVP candidate assigned to the national shadows.
Asked whether his big-swinging protégé deserves to be in the conversation,
Easley did not quibble.
“The numbers are stacking up with the best guys in baseball, so yes,” he said.
The numbers say, ‘Sure, why not?’. The name, the history and the clubhouse company say no. He was shrouded by the early buzz of Fernando Tatis Jr., the late buzz of Manny Machado and the baggage of being free-wheeling, understated, backward-cap-wearing Wil Myers.
The real conversation about Myers does not revolve around the
merits of his place in the National League pecking order, but rather his mind-boggling rebound from arguably the worst season of his career.
A year ago, he hit .239 with a .739 OPS (on base, plus slugging) and 168 strikeouts. He was erratic, unsteady and sometimes downright lost at the plate. Confidence tanked as production sank.
Entering Tuesday’s game with the Angels, Myers had raised his on-base percentage 44 points, his average 59 points and his OPS a staggering 250 points. He started the day No. 3 in baseball in extrabase hits, behind players with real shots at MVP hardware, the Braves’ Freddie Freeman and Jose Abreu of the White Sox.
Myers skyrocketed into baseball’s top 15 in OPS (ninth, ahead of Machado and Tatis), the extrabase hits per at-bat metric known as isolated power (fifth), total bases (12th), at-bats per home run (13th, at 12.93) and RBIS (14th).
So, what happened? And is Myers safeguarding the secret herbs and spices for KFC, too?
“Last year was a tough one, man,” Myers said. “… Those are the times that make you better. It makes you reevaluate what you’re doing and makes you say, ‘You know what, man, I don’t have this
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figured out’ or ‘I need to really, drastically change some things.’ ”
Manager Jayce Tingler called Myers’ offensive-180 a product of offseason selfreflection — a sort of bruising blessing in disguise.
“Those are the times you figure out how to be better, because that’s the only way you can respond,” Myers said.
Easley began working directly with Myers at the end of last season as the uptick emerged. He dutifully concealed the swing secret, other than to say Myers is dialed into using all fields. He added, “It wasn’t
anything boldly profound.”
The biggest difference: Myers himself.
“All I can say is that he’s been tremendously consistent in how he goes about his work,” Easley said. “He’ll stop himself sometimes in the cage when it’s just the two of us, where nobody can see, and say, ‘That’s not it. I’m not locked in good enough.’
“That level of detail, that wasn’t necessarily there last year. He got the work in and put out the effort, but the level of attention he puts in each rep is different.”
Considering the nearly absurd level of Myers’ breakthrough against the backdrop of last season makes it all the more head-shaking.
Fans wanted to chase
Myers out of San Diego with torches and pitchforks for reasons well beyond his choice in Mexican food. He was undependable, he was perceived as nonchalant and he was about to become very, very expensive as his contract jumped to $20 million per 162-game season.
Rather than shrink in the face of failure and nagging outside distractions, Myers dug in, did the work and lobbed the narrative into a food processor and hit puree.
“He’s just quietly been putting up an Mvp-type season and it’s been amazing to watch,” first baseman and World Series winner Eric Hosmer said. “The confidence, the leadership
he has now, it’s been really fun to be a part of it and really fun to watch.”
Tingler, who said Myers has the “heaviest fast hands that I’ve seen,” pinpointed that work between the ears matched the toil in the cage.
“Where he’s been really good has probably been on the mental side,” Tingler said. “What I’m so happy for Wil is, you don’t get to these points sometimes without being stretched and being beat on a little bit.
“… He probably wouldn’t be to this point if it wasn’t for some of those struggles.”
General Manager A.J. Preller said pride and purpose blended.
“It’s just a compliment to Wil,” Preller said. “I think Wil went home last year, he
had a bad taste in his mouth. He knew he was a better player than he showed and he committed himself.”
The rebirth of Myers and his bat coincides with the longest-tenured Padres player watching the franchise reach the playoffs for the first time since 2006.
“There’s definitely been some hard times,” Myers said. “When you look back at it and see where we are today … it’s made the long road worth it.”
Does Myers own the gate code to Fort Knox? Has he seen what’s inside Area 51? Who knows?
Whatever he did, it’s working.
bryce.miller@sduniontribune.com