A’s Chapman corrects bad habits

No pressure, but Matt Chapman is one of a handful of Oakland A’s players that holds the key to the team’s success this year.

Not that strong performances up and down the roster won’t be essential for the A’s to dig themselves out of this tumultuous start on their quest for another division title. But as an anchor both defensively at the hot corner and offensively in the middle of the batting order, a bounce-back year for Chapman could raise the team’s ceiling significantly.

The comeback comes with a hitch. Chapman had surgery on a partially torn labrum in September — it forced him to miss the A’s 2020 postseason run. The injury also forced Chapman into some bad habits at the plate, he said. In 2020, he wasn’t able to think about the job, just how to do the job without hurting himself.

“I was in pain and not able to do the things I wanted to do,” he said. That led to Chapman creating some bad habits in the batter’s box as he tried to compensate for the pain in his back leg.

“Subconsciously I started using some of my bigger muscles and trying to muscle the ball to get bat speed instead of taking a direct, quick swing and use my back side,” Chapman said.

That led to an ugly stretch of games in which Chapman struck out in 10 consecutive at bats in a series against the San Diego Padres. He collected 54 total strikeouts in 142 at bats with eight walks along with a .232 average. His strikeout rate skyrocketed to 35.5%, which ranked among the worst in the league when news broke that he’d need to undergo surgery.

Chapman is back healthy with a vengeance in 2021, unabashed in his quest to win his third Platinum Glove and help lead the team to another postseason run — this time, he won’t be holed up in his Southern California home nursing an injury while watching his team compete on television. He and the A’s have a full 162 to work with this year, too, but those habits at the plate he developed with the injury have translated to this season.