Altherr takes compact swing at increased playing time
NEW YORK » Aaron Altherr believed a broken wrist and a three-month recovery last year contributed to one of the most frustrating seasons in his career. Just the same, he would be open to other explanations.
That’s when Matt Stairs, the Phillies’ hitting coach, had an idea.
“He just said, ‘If you want, I have something for you to try,’” Altherr said Thursday in the clubhouse at CitiField, before going 2-for-5 in the Phillies’ 6-4 victory over the New York Mets. “So I said, ‘OK, I’ll try it.’”
With that, and for just the second time in what is his 10th year in professional baseball, Altherr changed his stance and his swing. Rather than standing at the plate with his bat high above his helmet, he would drop it to around his shoulders, simplifying his motion.
“Instead of going from A to B to C,” Pete Mackanin said, “he just started going A to C. And it’s been working.”
In his first at-bat Thursday, Altherr singled to run a modest hitting streak to four games, stole his first base of the season, and scored on Tommy Joseph’s double. In the third, he drove in a run with a grounder to second. In the eighth, he singled, his batting average hitting .333.
“He sure looks better than I’ve seen him in the past,” Mackanin said. “So I am going to try to get him as many at-bats as I can to see if he continues to swing the bat well.”
Mackanin didn’t originally have Altherr in the lineup against Noah Syndergaard. But a late sick call from Michael Saunders, who would pinch hit in the sixth, opened a starting spot in right. With that, Altherr could continue to try and put his 2016 struggle behind him. That’s when he hit .197 in 57 games, with four home runs and 69 strikeouts.
Considering that a year earlier his five home runs in 39 games and his defensive grace made him the presumptive regular rightfielder, it was an alarming drop.
“It was very frustrating, knowing what I could do and not being able to do it,” Altherr said. “I tried a whole lot of different things. But I just couldn’t get the timing back. So it is in the past now and I am moving on from there.”
Altherr’s 2016 season never had a real chance after he’d broken his left wrist in spring training. Recovery from surgery was originally set at four-to-six months, but he returned on the early side … too early, maybe, as the inactivity was rough to overcome.
“I think that’s more what it was than anything,” he said. “I didn’t start swinging and taking batting practice until the end of June or July. So it was definitely tough getting the feel and the timing back.”
With little to lose, and for the first time since he was in the low minors, Altherr altered his stance … and his results.
“I’m going to try to give him as many at-bats as I can,” Mackanin said. “If you continue to look good, it kind of warrants giving a guy more at-bats.”