Kieboom is finally finding his groove

23-year-old making adjustments at plate

It was the swing before a big swing that felt as good as one had in, well, a very long while. Ask a struggling hitter about his struggles, and common responses are to not think so much, to relax, to wipe his brain clean and focus on the next pitch. Executing that, though, lies somewhere on the spectrum between difficult and impossible. So Carter Kieboom tried the opposite.

Walking to the plate in the seventh inning of an Aug. 2 matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies, Kieboom told himself to be early. In his words, recounted about a week later, “I just went up there like: ‘I’m going to hit a home run here. I’m just going to go for it.’ ” Then José Alvarado, a flame-throwing reliever, started Kieboom with a 100-mph sinker, and he pounced. The inside pitch splintered his bat. The ball sailed for a single to center, far from a shot out of the park.

But the result didn’t matter much. The process had finally clicked.

“Never did I struggle in my life with hitting,” said Kieboom, the Washington Nationals’ 23-year-old third baseman. “I’ve always been a hitter, and I never struggled for a year-and-a-half or so, maybe more, maybe two years, like I did. To find that timing and find that hitter that I always knew was in me, to come out and do it every day now, it feels great.”

In his next at-bat after facing Alvarado, Kieboom skied a homer off right-handed reliever Ian Kennedy. In his 97 plate appearances since July 25, when he effec

tively became the Nationals’ everyday third baseman, Kieboom has 22 hits, two doubles, four home runs, 11 walks and 23 strikeouts. He has logged at least one RBI in five of his past six games. All in one, it’s a tiny sample, a step in the right direction and a stark difference from a brief stint in the majors in 2019, a rough 2020 and when Kieboom flatlined in spring training ahead of this season.

Heading into February and March, he had another chance to stick at third. But he went 6 for 45 with 17 strikeouts and no homers in Grapefruit League play. When the roster shook out, he was optioned to the alternate site, and the Nationals filled their bench with Jordy Mercer and Hernán Pérez. And when Kieboom learned of that decision, he burrowed himself in the cage, seeking the timing he found some four months later, hacking at Alvarado’s hard sinker.

The hope is that this chance, and the opportunity to play without fear of demotion, could unlock the potential Kieboom showed as a first-round pick and top prospect. Kieboom may not have many chances left.

“That freedom, to be able to play the game and make a mistake and have those days at the plate where you’re scuffling, to be able to come back the next day and jump right back into things. You get that short-term memory loss by playing every day and just getting to go out there and do it,” Kieboom said. “Yeah, being up here now, obviously you want to win, and that’s what we’re going to do. But at the same time, we got really young, really quick.”

This is not to say that Kieboom is a finished product. Not even close. He is refining his footwork and hands at third (as evidenced by the four errors he has made since he was promoted in late July). He is also still prone to strikeouts, shown by his pair against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, and the Nationals want to see more aggression early in counts.

But that these are the discussions surrounding him, and that they’re not about whether he can hang in the majors, is a massive improvement. His past two seasons did lower the bar. On Saturday, he floated an RBI single to right against dominant Brewers closer Josh Hader. On Sunday, he lunged for a live drive before turning an unassisted double play in the eighth, then crushed a solo homer in the ninth. He is blending good and bad, as any young player should.

“He’s grown up quite a bit already since I saw him the first time up here,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “And I think a lot of it is that he’s got confidence and feels like he belongs up here now. That’s a good sign.”

“For Carter, it’s really just about getting in position consistently and being ready to hit,” explained Brian Daubach, who was Kieboom’s hitting coach with the Class AAA Fresno Grizzlies in 2019 and the Rochester Red Wings this season. “In the past, that’s been a constant battle for him, how to time it right. But you’ve seen the progression, and now he has to do it day in, day out.”

Daubach is describing what Kieboom emphasized against Alvarado on Aug. 2. Kieboom calls it “being comfortable with being uncomfortably early.”

Part of that is physical: planting his front foot toward the end of the pitcher’s delivery, then loading his hands. But most of it is mental. That’s why it didn’t stick until, while walking to the batter’s box, Kieboom kept telling himself not to be late. One pitch later, a single made it seem as if he were back to mashing in high school or with the Class A Potomac Nationals. He just needed to feel it again.

“Something I missed and have longed for a long time,” Kieboom said. “So I just built off of that.”