The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Adell looks to crack roster after a winter of workouts
TEMPE, ARIZ. >> Just a couple of weeks after the 2022 season ended, Angels manager Phil Nevin was at the team’s complex in Arizona and he spotted someone in the distance, taking fly balls.
Upon closer inspection, Nevin realized it was Jo Adell, who was starting a winter-long program of work on and off the field in Arizona.
Adell said Friday that he worked out at the complex in Arizona “close to” every single day of the winter.
“What this guy has done in the last four or five months for me is as impressive as anything he could have done during the season last year,” Nevin said. “No vacations. Nothing. This guy didn’t miss a day. I’m really proud of the work he’s doing.”
Whether all of that will translate into more consistency hitting or catching baseballs remains to be seen, but there’s no question that it’s changed Adell’s body.
Adell said he’s at 225 pounds, up from around 210 last season.
“He’s a beast,” Nevin said. “He’s huge.”
Adell said his goal wasn’t to get bigger, but it just happened from the work he put in over the winter. He combined it with staying on the field, so he believes the extra muscle hasn’t detracted from his mobility.
“You can put the weight on and not be moving with it,” Adell said, “so it was good that I was able to kind of stay moving, stay fluid with that weight … I feel good where I’m at.”
Adell, 23, is beginning spring training facing a fight for playing time in the big leagues. The Angels acquired Hunter Renfroe for one starting spot in the outfield and they signed Brett Phillips to be the fourth outfielder.
That means that Adell either has to wait until someone gets hurt, or he has to perform so well that the Angels have no choice but to get him major-league atbats.
“At the end of the day, I show up every year and I expect to make the team,” Adell said. “I showed up last year in camp expecting to make it. This year is no different. We definitely have good players in camp. That’s what you expect. If you compete on a team that’s wanting to compete at a high level and get to the postseason, there are going to be good players out there. So now my goal is to continue to compete and, hopefully, at the end of camp, the best players are going to make the team and hopefully I’m one of them.”
So far, Adell has not lived up to the blue-chip prospect status that’s been attached to his name since he was the 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft. He has a career .215 batting average and a .616 OPS in 557 major-league plate appearances. He has hit 15 homers. His 34.8% strikeout rate is one of the worst in the majors, compounded by a walk rate of just 4.7%.
Adell said he’s more concerned about his fly ball rate, though.
“I need to get the ball in the air,” he said. “I think that was the biggest thing. I’m not going to try to force it to happen, but I’m going to put myself in a position where it does happen… I think with my bat speed and my ability and my power, good things are going to happen when the ball is elevated.”
Adell’s fly ball percentage was 22.8% last season, which is slightly below the major league average. His average lunch angle was 16.7 degrees, which is actually above the major league average of 12.1 degrees. That suggests that Adell hit too many pop-ups.
Adell said he and new Angels hitting coach Marcus Thames have been working to coax better results out of his raw tools.
“Me and Marcus have talked a good bit about approach, about things that we want to work on when it comes to what I’m seeing in the box,” Adell said. “I’m not ever getting in to hit worried about swinging and missing. That’s not who I am. That’s not my DNA. I’m going to go up and hopefully be able to elevate the baseball, get something I can drive. That’s who I am. And so as long as I stick to that, I feel good about what I’ll produce.”
At this point, the Angels are not built to be relying on anything from Adell. They have Mike Trout, Taylor Ward and Renfroe as the starting outfielders. Adell still has an option this year, so he can play at Triple-a if he doesn’t crack the bigleague roster.
“Right now my goal is to come out, be ready every day at 7:30 in the morning and try to make the team and show that I’ve got what it takes to be a part of this squad,” Adell said. “It’s going to be a good team. This team is going to play well this year. I want to be a part of that. I want to get to the postseason and I want to win. These are my goals. We’ll continue to work through spring training and see what happens.”
Notes
The Angels have hired Trent Woodward, the private hitting instructor who helped turn around Ward’s career. Woodward will work as a consultant, dropping in on the Angels or their minor league affiliates from time to time throughout the season. …
The Angels believe one of the issues with their bullpen last year was relying too heavily on left-hander Aaron Loup at the start of the season, so they are hoping that the addition of lefty Matt Moore can spread the workload more. “I think we’ll be able to manage the usage better with the more weapons we have,” Nevin said. …
Right-hander Sam Bachman, the Angels’ firstround pick in 2021, has impressed Nevin with his work over the winter and early in camp. Bachman struggled with his velocity after a back injury last season, but he seems to be beyond that now. “It’s electric,” Nevin said. “When we drafted him two years ago, those are the things we saw. It just keeps getting better. Even the other pitchers gravitate over to watch him throw. It’s that impressive.”