Brinson hopes to be voice of experience for young hitters
JUPITER
Lewis Brinson speaks from a place of experience on this topic.
He’s asked about a few of his younger teammates, four top prospects inside the Miami Marlins organization who made their MLB debuts with lackluster results in small sample sizes.
Infielder Jazz Chisholm, first baseman Lewin Diaz, and outfielders Jesus Sanchez and Monte Harrison — all ranked among the Marlins’ top-10 prospects at the start of last season — all had little success at the plate in their first taste of the big leagues. None hit above .170. All had at least twice as many strikeouts as hits.
Brinson has been in their shoes.
He hit .106 in 21 games with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2017 during his first major-league season. In 2018 with the Marlins, he batted .199 with a .577 OPS through 109 games. That batting average dipped to .173 in 2019 in 75 big-league games, with a demotion to Triple A mixed in between. He showed signs of progress during the 2020 season, hitting .226 on the season while mostly playing in a platoon role.
With that in mind, Brinson provided a simple suggestion for his teammates who are hoping to learn from that 2020 experience.
“I’d say embrace that struggle,” Brinson said. “Embrace that little sample size of, you know, getting slapped, getting low, getting humbled a little bit.”
And they were humbled.
Harrison went 8 for 47 (.170) with one double, one home run, three RBI, eight runs scored and 26 strikeouts. He was primarily used as a defensive replacement and pinch runner by season’s end. Sanchez went 1 for 25 (.040) with 11 strikeouts. His lone hit was a double. Diaz went 6 for 39 (.154) with two doubles, three RBI, two runs scored and 12 strikeouts. Chisholm went 9 for 56 (.161) with one double, one triple, two home runs, six RBI and 19 strikeouts.
“Baseball’s baseball,” Harrison said, “but it’s the outside, extra stuff that goes with it. If you can control that, and you can control the game on the field and slow it down. More than anything, I think I surprised myself by falling into those little, ‘Hey, I’m not going to be that guy to get called up to the big leagues and struggles mentally.’ I definitely said that before I got to the big leagues, and then once I got to the big leagues I struggled with that. That’s very humbling, just to know that that happened to me and now I grow from that.”
Diaz added: “Being up there is everybody’s dream who plays this game, making it to the Majors. But I have to continue to keep working on swinging at good pitches so I can go back to the major league level and stay there for a long time.”
And Chisholm: “My overall takeaway from last year is to just be yourself and have fun out there. Don’t go out there and tighten up Don’t get nervous. Just stay yourself and stay loose. The game will come to you.”
At this point, Marlins manager Don Mattingly isn’t concerned about any of those four. He knows the majority of young hitters struggle their first time in the big leagues — “There are very few
[Juan] Sotos, [Ken] Griffey Jrs. and [Ronald] Acunas of the world who are instantly stars,” Mattingly said.
The thing to watch, at least in Mattingly’s eyes, is how they respond to it after the season ends.
“That time away is so important,” Mattingly said, “because now you really have a chance to sit back and get outside of yourself, look at it and say ‘You know what? I wasn’t staying relaxed. I was trying to do too much’ or ‘Hey, I can hit there. That pitching’s good and I’ve gotta make adjustments and make sure I swing at strikes, be a little more precise.’ ... That’s growth. Learn from it and get better.”
Brinson took that to heart. While there is still a lot of work for him to establish himself as an everyday starter, he showed incremental improvement, especially in the shortened 2020 season. He has had to work physically and mentally to get back into a good place on the field.
He’s passing that knowledge on to the Marlins’ top hitting prospects who went through that initial struggle stage.
“Not everybody’s gonna come in the league and kill it,” Brinson said. “It just isn’t how the world works. If that was the case then everybody would be a millionaire, be able to take care of the family off the bat, but it doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to take your lumps. ... Learn from it. Don’t sit down and let it snowball, but definitely learn from it. Definitely don’t be scared to learn from your mistakes and work on things that you’re not good at. Don’t always work on your strengths. Work on your weaknesses a little bit more than your strengths.”