The power to change
1st baseman altered approach at plate, went on historic HR tear
Matt Olson’s season ended a week prematurely, denying him a chance to pad his home run numbers.
No worries. What Olson did down the stretch provided plenty of momentum heading to next season, reassured that the A’s first baseman of the future is the right man for the job and confirmed his unique batting stance works.
Olson, who’s missing the final week with a strained hamstring, finished his year with a .259 batting average, .352 onbase percentage, team-high 1.003 OPS (OBP-plus-slugging percentage) and, most strikingly, 24 home runs in 189 at-bats.
Not only did Olson do things in the batter’s box no A’s rookie did since Mark McGwire, he did things no rookie in history did.
It’s a reason A’s fans might be excited about 2018 as they wonder if Olson’s numbers could translate over a full season. Olson chuckled at the thought.
“That would be great,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here
and say I’m going to hit whatever the pace would be. That would just be outrageous. But I know it’s in there. I know I have the capability of continuing to hit (as in 2017). We’ll just have to see.”
Olson, 23, the 47th overall pick in the 2012 draft from Parkview High School in Georgia, is part of a young core of hitters for whom the A’s anticipate a promising future, but nobody has come close to Olson’s production.
Olson became the first rookie in history to homer in five consecutive games and first to hit 15 homers in 21 games and 16 homers in 23 games. No rookie ever homered 13 times in September, until Olson.
Nine of his final 11 hits were homers, and he finished the year with more homers than singles.
Ryon Healy, a roommate and teammate of Olson dating to the low minors, was asked if his buddy had any streaks like this at other levels.
“I’m going to be entirely honest with you,” Healy said. “I have never seen anybody in my entire life do this. No matter what level it’s at, no matter who it is. I’ve never seen this done. This is all new.”
It’s not as if Olson started hitting the moment he became a big-leaguer. He was 2-for-21 last September and opened this season 2-for-17. That’s four hits in 38 homerless at-bats.
Then he went deep — twice on the same day, actually, June 24 in Chicago — and didn’t stop until he strained his hamstring reaching for a throw Sunday. His 24 homers came in his final 51 games.
For a while there, they were coming daily. Six homers in seven games. Nine homers in 12 games. His 15-over-21 stretch was unprecedented in Oakland history. Reggie Jackson didn’t do it. Ditto for Jose Canseco and Jason Giambi and the man whose poster was on Olson’s wall as a child, McGwire.
Not that Olson remembered McGwire with the A’s. When McGwire was traded to St. Louis in 1997, Olson was 3. His McGwire poster depicted the first baseman with the Cardinals.
Olson had other posters on his wall. Derek Jeter. Chipper Jones. And, of course, Ken Griffey Jr.
“I really liked Griffey,” Olson said. “Obviously, everybody loves his sweet swing and smooth finish on home runs. I used to emulate his swing out in the yard playing Wiffle Ball. He was one of those players where it came naturally. I heard stories that he told people, ‘Just see it and hit it.’ He was just one of those guys.”
It’s not that easy for most of the baseball population. Olson, for instance. He generally has good plate discipline and good on-base percentages, but he made constant adjustments to keep pace with pitchers through the pro ranks, none more dramatic than the stance that he reinvented since last year.
The higher Olson rose in the system, the better the pitchers’ control, and eventually he was exposed, struggling to get his 6-foot-5 frame around on inside pitches.
So last September, Olson and A’s hitting coach Darren Bush worked on changing the approach, including extending Olson’s arms out rather than keeping his hands tucked near his back shoulder.
Olson spent the offseason refining his mechanics, and it got to the point he was holding his bat far from his body and pointing it upward and away from him. It became one of the game’s most distinct stances, especially among power hitters.
“Ultimately, it just became an easier way for me to have a clearer path to the ball and be in a better position every time,” Olson said. “Last year, going back and looking at video, I was cutting myself off from my upper body and not getting balanced with my lower half.
“I couldn’t get to the pitch in. Mentally, I was thinking about it, and because of that, if I was subconsciously cheating to the inside pitch, when I got a pitch away, I was fouling it off. It all snowballed.
“This year, I hit a lot of pitches I didn’t get to last year, different pitches on different spots on the plate.”
Olson conceded the new stance wasn’t fully comfortable in spring training, but he continued to tweak it in April, and by May, he finally began feeling right. He stuck with it.
“It’s one thing to try to make an adjustment that dramatic, it’s another to stay with it when you go through some difficult periods,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s a real credit to him to stay with something that he thought fundamentally would be good for him down the road, and obviously it has been.”
An issue for Olson was the constant shuttling between the A’s and Triple-A Nashville. Olson has had six stints with Oakland this year, finally sticking in early August after the Mariners claimed Yonder Alonso, which opened first base for Olson.
Olson has long had power. He had 23 homers at Class A Beloit as a 19-year-old and 37 at Class A Stockton. Then 17 at Double-A Midland in 2015 and 17 at Nashville last year.
He hit 23 this year with Nashville, giving him a combined 47 for the season. He’s the first player with at least 20 homers in the minors and majors in the same season since Giancarlo Stanton in 2010.
Despite the slow start, Olson averaged one homer every 7.88 plate appearances. Only two hitters with at least 200 plate appearances in a season had better HR-to-PA ratios.
A fellow named Barry Bonds (1-to-6.52 in 2001). Another named McGwire (1to-7.27 in 1998 and 1-to-7.38 in 2000).
Like everyone else affiliated with the A’s, Melvin is eager to see what Olson can do in a 162-game season.
“It’s been pretty remarkable,” Melvin said. “You look at the home run number overall, it’s a number a lot of guys would take over 162. So, yes, it’s exciting to see what he could potentially do.”
“This year, I hit a lot of pitches I didn’t get to last year, different pitches on different spots on the plate.” Matt Olson, A’s first baseman